Past troubles are today's nightmares
by DutchLady
Summary: Sequel to "Who doctors the Doctor". The Doctor and a pregnant Martha are travelling together now for six months. But the past comes back to haunt them both. Rating is now up to M, just to be on the safe side COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

This is the sequel to "Who Doctors the Doctor"  
I'm still typing the last chapters, but it is all in my head.

Summary: The Doctor and Martha have now been travelling together for six months. But the past will not rest and comes back to haunt them both.

Disclaimer: I don't anything you recognize, the BBC does. But maybe if I ask nicely?

* * *

**Past troubles are today's nightmares**

Rose Tyler walked back to the TARDIS on shaky legs.

She had just watched her father die. She had held his hand and had felt the life slip from his body. Her father… the man she had never thought she would know. But now she did, thanks to the Doctor. She knew what her father looked like, she knew how his voice sounded, and she knew how he smelled. All those precious little things, all people took for granted, she at last now knew.

Rose glanced at the Doctor, who was walking beside her. Simply by holding her hand he was comforting her. The Doctor put his hand in his pocket and took out the TARDIS key, unlocked the door and ushered Rose inside.

When the Doctor closed the door behind him, he could hear the sound of the sirens coming towards them. They were going to be too late.

The TARDIS' familiar hum was in the background; it was low and subdued.

The Doctor watched as Rose walked over to the battered chair and lay down on her side. Her head was resting on her arms, her eyes were closed.

His hearts went out to her. She had wanted to get to know her father so badly that he had brought her here, against his better judgement. The Doctor understood her motivation to wanting to meet her father. He missed his own family terribly; he understood…

The Doctor walked over to her and crouched down, so that they were eye to eye.

"You okay…?" he asked gently.

Rose opened her eyes, tears shone in them. "No…" she whispered. "…but I will be."

The Doctor seemed satisfied with that answer. "Do you want to go home…? For a quick visit…? You know, go and hug your mum?"

Rose sat up and moved a little to the side of the chair so the Doctor could sit down next to her. "Am I hearing this right? Are you volunteering to go to the Powell Estate?"

She scrutinised him. "You're not going domestic on me…? Are you?"

The Doctor sat down and gave her a look of mock horror. "No, I'm not going domestic on you. I don't do domestic. I was just worried about you, that's all."

Rose laid her head against his shoulder, and smiled weakly. "I'll be fine… honestly."

They sat together in comfortable silence, but started when there was a sudden loud bleeping sound coming from the other end of the console.

The Doctor jumped from the chair, causing Rose to almost fall off, and ran around the console. He began to twiddling dials and pulling levers, and stopped to peer at the scanner screen.

"It's a distress call. It's coming from Earth… in 2012… in what appears to be… Cardiff? Strange, I hope it's not the Rift…"

He glanced at Rose, who had slid down the chair and was now leaning against it, waiting for an explanation.

"What do you say…? Wanna go and check it out?"

Rose looked at him and shrugged. "Aren't distress calls our speciality?"

Without another word, he simply smiled at her, the Doctor threw the necessary levers to send them hurtling through the time vortex.

*****

"Martha…! Duck…!"

Martha ducked just in time to see a small object fly past her. A quick glance showed it to be spear.

"What did you do?" she yelled over her shoulder to the Time Lord who was running behind her.

"Nothing…" the Doctor yelled back, sounding indignantly. "…much," he added under his breath so Martha couldn't hear him.

Martha was at the moment six months pregnant. She was still capable of running, but it had become difficult, and she was no longer very fast.

The Doctor had become extremely protective since she had discovered that she was going to have a baby. Not that it was the Doctor's baby, no; it was her husband Tom's baby. But soon, he wasn't going to be her husband anymore; she would be free of him as soon as the divorce had been filled.

God, she was the third Jones woman in one year to get a divorce…

Giving herself a mental shake as she ran, Martha glanced over her shoulder to see where the Doctor was. He was behind her; he did that a lot lately, running behind her so people or aliens would have to go through him to get to her. Or he was in front of her; but he always looked out for her.

The Doctor was digging around in his deep pockets for the TARDIS key and produced the small item with a silent voila.

The TARDIS was only a few metres away.

"What did you do to upset them?" Martha asked again.

"Nothing much…" the Doctor told her. "I just wanted to know if that statue was old, because it looked ancient. How was I to know that it had only been there a week and the artist is a… not so very good artist."

Martha gave a snort of laughter. It really was something that he would ask.

The two time travellers reached the waiting ship and stumbled inside. The Doctor quickly closed the door and the sound of an angry mob could be heard.

He glanced at Martha. "You two alright?" he asked.

Yep, definitely protective.

"Yeah," Martha answered. The Doctor ran to the console and started the dematerialization process.

Martha walked over to the jump seat and sat down. She put up her feet against the console and waited for the Doctor to join her, like he always did now.

They had become even better friends after everything that had happened. The TARDIS had even put their bedrooms next to each other, and put in a door, so that they could both easily go from room to room in the middle of the night if need be. And it had been needed.

At times Martha still had nightmares that Tom was hitting her, and when she woke up the Doctor was always holding her; comforting her.

And she had done the same for him. A few times the Doctor had woken her up, when he had nightmares about the war, or the event on Midnight and his torture by Tom. Then she was the one holding and comforting him.

And always they would wake up holding each other. And Martha had to confess, –only to herself of course, confessing it to the Doctor wasn't something that wasn't going to happen; ever- she kind of liked it.

The Doctor sat down next to her on the jump seat.

"You sure you two are alright?" he asked, concern in his eyes.

Martha hooked her arm through his and put her head on his shoulder. "Yes, we're fine."

A bleeping sound came from the console, and a small light began to flash. The Doctor got to his feet and investigated the source of the bleep and flash.

"Strange… a distress signal,' he muttered.

"Really…? Where from, we could go and help," Martha said.

The Doctor looked up. "That's what I love about you, Martha Jones; always putting other people first."

He grabbed the scanner screen and pulled it closer. "The signal is coming from 2012… Cardiff."

"Well, if you think it could be Jack… what are we waiting for?" Martha asked with a bright smile.

The Doctor grinned at her and sent them on their way to Cardiff in 2012.

*****

The TARDIS materialized with her usual thump.

Rose opened the doors and peered outside. The Doctor was right behind her and pushed her out.

"Perfect landing," he said, while glancing at his watch. "And perfect timing. We're in Cardiff and its 2012."

Rose was never quite sure if the Doctor could really tell from a watch where and when they were, of if he was just having her on. Probably a little of both.

They had landed on the Roald Dahl Plass, just in front of the Millennium Stadium.

"You've got a thing about for Cardiff then, Charles Dickens," Rose teased the Doctor, remembering the last time they'd been in said city.

"I promise there'll be no Gelth this time," the Doctor said.

Rose nodded. "So… who or what send that signal then?"

"Don't know," the Doctor muttered. "But it was definitely sent from here. So whoever or whatever sent that signal is still here, I hope."

And then a voice – an American voice – came from behind them. "Actually, I send that signal. Doctor, Rose, how are you doing?"

The Doctor and Rose spun around and saw a man standing there. He was tall, handsome and was sporting a Hollywood smile.

The Doctor grabbed Rose and pulled her behind him; still feeling protective after recent events. "Who are you?" he demanded.

The man's smile faltered. "It's me…Jack!"

The Doctor gave the stranger a look. "Sorry, I've got no idea who you are."

Jack's smile now completely vanished. "Oh, this is not good. You haven't met me yet. But I made sure that the signal was sent to a Doctor that knows me."

Jack started pushing the little buttons on his vortex manipulator. "I checked it twice, to be sure, you know. This is impossible."

Out of nowhere a sound was heard behind Jack. It was a wheezing sound made by ancient engines, and a light began to flash illogically in mid-air.

Another TARDIS materialized.

The door opened and a tall man in a pinstriped suit emerged, followed by a black woman, who was clearly pregnant.

The new Doctor gave a big grin. "Hi Jack! Did you send that signal?"

The Doctor faltered when he saw that Jack wasn't alone.

Behind the immortal man, his Ninth self was standing, with Rose at his side.

_to be continued_


	2. Chapter 2

The Tenth Doctor took a few steps forward.

"Oh, this is brilliant," he exclaimed. "A bit unexpected, but still totally brilliant. Isn't this brilliant, Martha? It's me… well… former me. But still me!"

Martha looked at her Doctor and smiled. "Take a breath, Doctor." She went to stand beside him and thrust out her hand. "Hello, I'm Martha," she said, addressing the Ninth Doctor.

With a slightly bewildered expression the Ninth Doctor shook her hand. "I'm the Doctor," he said.

"I know," Martha said with a smile. "And it is still very nice to meet you." Martha turned to her Doctor. "So… you are a later regeneration then him?"

The Tenth Doctor nodded. "I'm the Tenth, he is the Ninth."

"Right…" Martha muttered.

"Do you mind, Doctor," Jack said, and he swept Martha up in a bear hug. "How are you doing, nightingale?" he whispered in her ear.

"I'm fine, Jack," she whispered back. "And when are you going to stop calling me nightingale?"

Jack released her. "Oh… never."

Martha giggled and pulled his head down, and gave him quick peck on the cheek.

Jack smiled and his hand hovered over her stomach. "May I…?"

Martha grabbed his hand and placed it on her stomach. "Don't be silly, Jack."

Jack laughed as the baby brushed against his hand. "I've seen a lot, but some things, like pregnancy, continue to amaze me."

He pulled her in another hug.

The Ninth Doctor and Rose looked at the little exchange. Especially the Ninth Doctor was a little surprised. His next self was travelling with a pregnant companion. What was up with that…?

Martha released herself from the hug and smiled at her immortal friend and then shifted her gaze to the Ninth Doctor and Rose.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Jack and I have known each other for a long time and we've been through a lot."

The Ninth Doctor shook his head, waving her appology away. "No need to apologize," he said. "Any fool can see that you two care about each other. And… congratulations."

He waved towards her pregnant belly. Martha caressed her belly and gave him a smile.

The Tenth Doctor clapped his hands together. "Right, well maybe it's best that you and Rose leave, because this might cause a paradox."

Martha extended her hand towards Rose. "Doctor… I want to meet them properly before they leave." She turned to Rose, "Hi, nice to meet you, Rose. Well, we have met… but it was during a universe saving crisis and we never had the opportunity to meet each other properly."

Rose shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you too."

"What I want to know is…" the Ninth Doctor said, and pointed to Jack. "…who he is and why is he 'wrong'?"

Jack pulled an uncomfortable face, when the Doctor said the word 'wrong'. "I'm Jack, Captain Jack Harkness, but Jack is preferred."

"Right," the Ninth Doctor said. "But why are you wrong?"

Jack swallowed and looked at the Tenth Doctor for help, that man just shrugged. If Jack wanted to answer that was fine by him.

"Wanna tell us what we're doing here?" the Ninth Doctor asked, realising that he wasn't going to get an answer just yet.

Jack looked at the two Doctors and their companions. "It's a long story."

"I bet it's interesting," the Tenth Doctor said.

"Oh… it is," Jack said with a dazzling smile.

*****

_This is totally surreal_ Martha thought to herself.

She was looking at two men, who were basically the same man, arguing about the fact that one them should leave. Both of them being here, at the same time was a general bad idea. It caused paradoxes and the Tenth Doctor, nor the Ninth, were really fans of those.

The Tenth Doctor didn't really see a problem. He was enjoying this immensely.

The Ninth Doctor confessed to be worried about the situation, but found himself to be intrigued as well.

In the end they had decided that they were going to hear Jack out, and then decide if the Ninth Doctor was going to leave.

As Martha continued to observe them, the five of them made their way into the Torchwood Hub, she noticed a lot of different aspects in the two men. Just by the way they walked; she could distinguish the two men. Her Doctor just strode along with a bit of a skip in his step, whereas the Ninth Doctor walked with all of the confidence in the world.

Martha felt a tap on her shoulder; it was Rose.

"Surreal isn't it?" she said.

Martha nodded. "Yeah, it is a bit. I knew that he could regenerate, but I've never met another Doctor."

"I didn't even know he could change his face."

The Ninth Doctor had given Rose a brief explanation about who the man in the brown suit was. Rose hadn't believed him at first, but then the Tenth Doctor had said a few things that only the Doctor could know, and Rose had believed him.

Rose waved to Martha's stomach. "Congratulations," she said.

"Thank you," Martha said. "It was a bit of a shock to find out, but now… I'm okay with it."

"Is the Doctor…?" Rose started.

Martha looked at her. "Yes…?" she urged Rose on, knowing full well what the young blonde wanted to ask; but daren't.

"Where am I?" Rose asked hurriedly, instead of the question she originally wanted to ask.

"What do you mean?" Martha asked.

"Where am I now? I'm clearly not with him anymore, so where am I?" Rose asked bluntly.

Defensively Martha held up her hands. "I don't think I should tell you."

"So you _do_ know…?" Rose said.

"Yes," Martha said.

Rose put her hand on Martha's arm, causing both of them to stop walking. Rose looked at Martha expectantly. "Well…?"

Martha sighed and pulled her arm free from Rose's grip. "First, I don't like people touching me, personal reasons. Two, yes, I do where you are now. Three, it is not for me to tell you, you will find out eventually, because it is still in your future. And four, all I will tell you is that I know that you are happy, and that you are with the people you love."

Martha turned and walked away towards the two Doctors and Jack who were waiting by the Tourist Information entrance. She knew that she had been a bit rough to Rose, but the girl had asked questions that Martha couldn't answer.

The Doctor looked at her as she approached. She just shook her head.

The two Doctors and Martha and Rose followed Jack through the Tourist Information Office and into the long corridor that lead into the Hub. The cogwheel rolled out of their way.

Immediately, Gwen got to her feet and made towards Martha, and gave the young doctor a hug.

"How are you?" she asked.

"I'm pretty good," Martha said. "I still have a bit of trouble with morning sickness, but that is getting better, although I do still tend to throw up a lot, just not that much."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Gwen said.

Martha pulled the woman a bit to the side. "Gwen, I just wanted to thank you."

"For what…?" Gwen asked a little puzzled.

"For being there for my family in London six months ago."

Gwen waved Martha's comments away. "No need to thank me."

Martha wanted to protest, but the Welsh woman was adamant that 'thank you's' weren't necessary.

The two women followed the little group further into the Hub, where a very surprised Ninth Doctor was greeting Mickey.

"Mickey, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I work here, don't I?" Mickey answered, a little riled about the comment. He had a pretty good report with the Tenth Doctor, but the Ninth still ruffled his feathers.

"Captain Harkness hired _you_?" the Doctor said, with an incredulous look on his face.

Jack put an arm around his shoulders. "Yes, Doc, I hired him, because he has some skills. Now leave him alone. Follow me folks."

Soon the conference room was filled with people. Everybody was seated around a large conference table; Ianto remained standing because all the chairs were occupied.

Jack pushed a button and the screen against the wall comes to life.

"For the past four weeks we've been monitoring weird phenomena here in Cardiff, specifically right on top off us; the Plass. It has happened all over Cardiff, but since a few days it's all here."

"What kind of phenomena?" Nine asked.

Jack pushed another button on his remote. The screen showed a security camera's view of the Plass. Clearly visible in the sky were three red spots; all about ten centimetres wide. At the bottom of the screen was the date of two weeks ago.

Jack continued to push the button, showing more camera footage. All different dates, and sometimes there were two red spots, sometimes one, and sometimes all three. Sometimes they were in different areas of the sky. They were there from dawn until dusk.

"What are those red spots?" Martha asked.

"We have no idea." Jack answered. "Which is my I send the signal."

"You do know that you could have called, Jack," Ten said. "I still have Martha's old phone, you have that number. I've soniced Martha's new phone, you could have called that. And if you'd called us, he…" the Doctor pointed to his Ninth self, "…wouldn't be here."

Jack just gaped at him for a second, and then flushed a little. "Right," he muttered. "Moving on…"

He went back to pushing buttons. "Now… we've figured out that, even though we have no idea what it is going on, that is got to do something with the rift."

"The rift…?" Rose asked.

"Cardiff is built on a rift in time and space. Here, inside the Hub, we're sitting right underneath it," Jack answered.

Rose nodded. "So… stuff comes through?"

"Yes," Ten said. "The rift is very powerful. I use it as fuel, but it throws out lots of artefacts or even aliens from parallel dimensions or different planets. You never quite know what it's going to dump into Jack's lap next."

"You sound like you speak from experience," Nine said.

"Yes, I do," Ten said. "I've spent some time here a while back, while I was recovering from injuries, and helped out with a few things."

The Tenth Doctor looked at his predecessor. The Ninth knew what he meant, he would find out.

"Right…," Nine said. "What _do_ you know about these red spots?"

"In a nutshell? Nothing," Jack answered.

"Then let's go and do some research," Ten said, and rose from his chair and went to Tosh's old computer station, which was now Mickey's.

He started typing away in a rapid manner. The Ninth Doctor came over as well and started to look over his shoulder. Nine pointed several small things out, and soon the two men were talking in quiet Gallifreyan.

Nine turned to the group that had formed a small distance away. "You're right, Captain. You have got nothing. All the instruments say that there is nothing there, but the visual evidence disagrees, which is a bit strange… fantastic." He turned back to watch the screen, with a bright smile.

Gwen and Ianto looked at Jack in utter bewilderment.

"He thinks everything is fantastic," Jack explained to them.

Martha was the only one had remained in the conference room. She was slowly breathing in and out, rubbing her stomach.

Jack heard her and turned around. "Martha… you okay?"

Martha shook her head, and with her eyes closed, she continued to rub circles and breathe in and out.

"Doctor…?" Jack said.

Both Doctors turned to face Jack, who was still looking at Martha.

Instantly the Tenth Doctor was on his feet and rushed over to Martha. He crouched down beside her.

"Nauseous?" he asked.

Martha nodded.

"Bathroom?"

Martha nodded again.

Gently the Doctor took her arm and helped her to her feet. The Doctor looked at Jack, who pointed to where the bathroom was. Slowly, but surely the Doctor led Martha to the bathroom, where she threw up violently.

"Why do they call it 'morning sickness' when I've got it all day?" Martha asked.

The Doctor handed her a glass of water, which Ianto had given him. "I'm not sure," he said, with an apologetic smile. "Are you feeling better?"

Martha nodded. "Yeah… thank you."

The Doctor gave her a smile and hugged her briefly. "Any time…"

Reluctantly he released her. "What do you want to do? Have a lay down or do you want help us figure this out?"

Martha looked into his eyes. "I want to stay with you," she said.

The Doctor looked back. He saw something in her eyes that unnerved him a little; but in a good way.

He coughed and moved away.

He held out his hand and helped her to her feet. A little embarrassed the two returned to the central area of the Hub.

"Morning sickness…" they muttered simultaneously.

They others just looked at them.

The Doctor clasped his hands together. "Well, let's continue with the research."

_to be continued_


	3. Chapter 3

Three hours later their research had proven unsuccessful, and the two Doctors knew that they would only be able to figure this out if they could examine the red spots themselves. But, of course, now they weren't any. They showed up several times a day, and of course they hadn't shown up in several hours.

So this had turned into a waiting game.

Martha was lounging on the sofa against the wall, reading a magazine that she had borrowed from Gwen, when the Ninth Doctor sat down next to her.

"Hello," he said. "Feeling better?"

Martha put the magazine down. "Yeah, once I throw up, I'm feeling better. I hope that _that_ part of this pregnancy is over soon, even though I do only have three more months to go."

"Well, I'm hoping with you," he said.

An awkward silence fell between the two.

"Did you come over for a reason?" Martha asked.

The Doctor looked at her; he almost looked a bit shy. "I came over to ask you… who…well… who…"

Martha put her hand on his arm, causing him to stop stammering. "Doctor, I know what you want to ask me. Rose wanted to know the same thing and like you didn't dare to ask it."

They looked each other in the eye.

"No…," Martha said with emphasis.

The Doctor nodded. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be..."

Martha laughed. "Don't be. You're not the first to think it and if you… he… you know… if you and I continue to travel together more people will think it."

"May I ask who the father is?" the Doctor asked.

Martha gazed to the ground, and said quietly, "My husband… my soon to be ex-husband."

"Right…," the Doctor said, noting it was a sore subject. "So, how do we meet?"

"Should I even tell you that?" Martha asked. "With timelines and all that?"

"The next me has told me that he has no memory of this," he started. "So it is safe to assume that after this is over I'm going to wipe my memory, and Rose's memory. It is safe to tell me."

Martha nodded and continued to tell how they will meet, a few of the places where they went, and all those amazing sunsets that she'd seen.

"That is my favourite part," Martha said with a smile. "Seeing all those different sunsets and sunrises on far away planets and moons... Of course the running for my life is a bit of a drag, but I am doing that with my best friend, so then it isn't such a drag anymore."

"Why did you leave me?" the Doctor asked.

Martha swallowed, and gazed at the floor. "I don't think I should tell you."

"It's okay, I won't remember any of this," the Doctor assured her.

"It's not that," Martha said.

She turned to really face him. "I'm a doctor," she said. "I used to work at the A&E, and in that place I saw people with physical and emotional pain every day. And, please forgive me, but I don't think you are emotionally ready to know why I left."

"I can take a lot," the Doctor a bit cross.

"I know that," Martha assured him, putting her hand on his arm. "There are things going to happen to you that are not pleasant… and that are going to turn your world upside down. Jack and I were there for the worst part of it. You talk about it now, but only to me. Please, don't press me into telling you things that are inevitable, that are going to happen sooner or later, but can still make me… and you… become emotional."

The Doctor nodded. He wasn't entirely happy about her reluctance, but he understood. People shouldn't too much about their future, him included.

"Can I ask you something else?" he asked.

"Of course."

The Doctor pointed to his next self. "Do I ever eat? I'm skinny as a rake!"

Martha burst out laughing. "Yeah, you eat. But with all of the running that we do you can eat whatever you like and not gain any weight. Although my mum is currently on a personal mission to make sure you _do_ gain some."

The Doctor looked at her in horror. "Your mum…? We go and visit your mum? _I visit your mother voluntarily?_"

Martha nodded. "Oh, yeah. We try and go every week. For my mum at least, from our perspective it's about every fortnight. You can't handle more, even if my mum and you do get on great."

"Your mother and I _get along_…?" the Doctor asked, still in horror.

Martha laughed and took his hand in hers and squeezed it. "There's a reason for it, but I won't spoil it for you."

She let go of his hand and stood up and made her way to her Doctor, who was sitting at a computer station on a revolving chair, going round and round in circles. And every time he was in danger of slowing down, he pushed against the station to get his momentum going again.

"You look totally bored!" she asked with a cheeky smile.

The Doctor stopped and looked at her; there was a look in his eyes, which Martha couldn't identify; it was probably nausea.

"What…?" she asked.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"For what…?"

"For not giving away anything," the Doctor said, while pointing to his Ninth self.

"You remembered?"

The Doctor nodded. "While you two were talking the memory came back. They've been coming back since this whole thing started. But only what we were experiencing at that exact moment."

"Doctor…you told me everything that has happened to you. In this life and in your previous lives, you've told me all that in confidence. I would never tell anyone… not even your past self," Martha said.

The Doctor just sat motionless for a few moments, staring at her. She was right; he had told her almost everything about his ten lives. The good, the bad and the very bad. He had told her about Susan, about Sarah Jane, about working for UNIT and why he'd worked for them in the first place. He had told her more about Gallifrey, and his family; about his children and his friends. About several people he had travelled with.

And he had told her about the war, about Arcadia, what had happened, and what he had done. A few more specific details he hadn't told her, they were too horrific.

The Doctor got to his feet and enveloped Martha in a hug. He held her as close as he possibly could. It felt right to hold her… wow, what was that?

'It felt right to hold her'? When he thought about it for a second he found it to be true. When he looked at Martha he couldn't help but smile. Every day she did things that made him proud. When he needed her, she was there. Was that… love?

Over Martha's shoulder the Doctor looked over at his Ninth self who was now talking to Rose. His life at that point had almost revolved around the young girl, but he was now holding a grown woman. A woman to whom he could tell anything. Only briefly after meeting Martha, she had learned more about him then Rose ever had.

And it was all because he knew that he could trust Martha with his life. And she trusted hers with him. The fact of how close they were now proved that.

About a week ago, the Doctor had had a nightmare about the war and he had woken up alone. He hated himself for doing it, but he had left his own bedroom and had climbed into bed with Martha, who had for once not woken up. He had held her close that night and for the first time in a long time had he allowed himself to think that Martha would stay with him…forever.

He was pulled from his musings when out of the blue all of the computers went nuts; they started bleeping and spilling out data.

The Doctor, reluctantly, let go of Martha and rushed over to the computers, only being beaten by the Ninth Doctor by a second.

"They're here," Nine said.

_to be continued_


	4. Chapter 4

The two Time Lords burst out of the Tourist Information office and ran across the Roald Dahl Plass.

Both men were glad that while they had been inside the Hub it had become dark and the Plass was now empty.

About five metres in the sky, three bright red spots could be seen; all three about ten centimetres wide.

The two Time Lords stared up at them, and almost as one pulled their sonic screwdrivers out of their pockets.

"Setting 728…?" Ten muttered.

"Don't see why not?" Nine muttered back.

Ignoring the small group of people, consisting of Team Torchwood and Martha and Rose, behind them, both men pointed their screwdrivers towards the red spots and turned them on. Both devices made the same warbling sound and the tips shone bright blue.

The effect on the red spots was amazing. Immediately they grew in size and became even brighter.

"See that…?" Nine said.

Ten only nodded. "Ready…?" he added.

Then Nine nodded. Without stopping pointing the screwdrivers towards the sky, both made tiny adjustments on the devices.

Suddenly the red spots disappeared.

"No no no no no…!" Ten yelled.

The Ninth Doctor looked up at sky with a worried expression. "That wasn't good," he said.

The Tenth Doctor looked at his predecessor; there was a puzzled look on his face. "Did you get _no_ readings as well?"

Nine shook his head. "No, nothing."

"I've seen readings like this before… we tried to get readings from the Void," Ten said.

Nine looked at him, as realization dawned. "Well, that's _really_ not good."

Ten shook his head. "Nope, that's very bad."

The Tenth Doctor looked at the places where the red spots had been, and then turned and looked at Rose, who was standing amongst the small group of onlookers.

Was Rose's future self responsible for this?

*****

The group went back into the Hub, the red spots had disappeared and there wasn't much that they could do outside.

The Hub sensors had recorded everything and again had come up with nothing; because they were scanning nothing.

The cogwheel rolled out of their way, to grant them access to the Hub. Slowly, they scattered all around the Hub.

Martha approached Jack. "Is there somewhere where I can get off my feet for a few hours?"

She needed a lot of small naps lately and the Doctor understood that, and always tried to stay in close proximity to the TARDIS. And if they weren't, then the Doctor always seemed to find a bed for her to sleep in. At one occasion they had stayed in a barn and Martha had slept soundly in the warm hay.

"Of course," Jack replied. "You can sleep in my bed."

Martha nodded and made her way to the Doctor. She placed her hand on his arm. "I'm really tired, so Jack said that I can sleep in his bed for a few hours."

The Doctor nodded. "Sleep tight."

Martha remained standing there with her hand on his arm. The Doctor covered her hand with his own. "I will hear you if you need me," he whispered, he ignored the look Nine and Rose gave him.

Carefully, Martha made her way down the small ladder to Jack's bedroom, took her shoes and jacket off and lay down. She closed her eyes, but she couldn't sleep.

Rose had hardly talked since they were here, but Martha had felt her eyes on her all the time. Rose always kept an eye on her. And Martha didn't like it one bit, she didn't like it when people were keeping an eye on her. She hadn't been able to take it anymore after the events of The Year That Never Was. In her time with UNIT, people had continued to stare at her, because she was Doctor Martha Jones, she knew and had travelled with the Doctor. And she had hated it; it was as if she wasn't her own person. And everything that had happened with Tom didn't help either.

The Doctor was watching her too, but from him she _didn't_ mind. She liked it…a lot. When he was watching her, she felt safe… she felt loved…

And lately he had been watching her a lot. She knew that the Doctor was very protective of her, but lately…

Her own feelings for the Doctor had changed. She had never really stopped loving him. When she had travelled with him the first time, she had been young, and he had just swept her off her feet. She had been in love with him and after she had said goodbye to him to save herself from a lot of heartache, the love had grown to a deep affection. But now… looking into his eyes day after day… she had once again fallen in love with him. However it was now a deeper love, because now they shared so much more. They knew almost everything about each other.

But the Doctor would never feel the same way. Martha was sure of it, he still cared to deeply about Rose. There wasn't room in his hearts for her.

Slowly, but surely, Martha fell asleep.

*****

The Tenth Doctor watched as Martha made her way towards Jack's bedroom. She needed her little naps more and more. A few years ago he would have laughed in the faces of people who would have told him that one day he was going to travel with a pregnant woman and that he would be okay about it.

And he was okay about it.

He knew that he had told Martha that if people assumed he was her baby's father, he would correct them, but in the end he didn't do that much correcting…

And he knew why.

Because he loved her.

He had realized it, when he had come to help her six months ago. When he had seen her, sitting on her sofa, her eye black and closed, her lip swollen, he had felt a surge of protectiveness and affection that was overwhelming. He had known that he never should have let her walk out of his life. That he should have said something to make her stay. Maybe it was selfish of him to make her stay with him, to continue to travel with him.

But Martha knew him well enough to know that a reverse situation would never work, he would go nuts. And there was the problem of how to convince Martha of his true feelings. He feared that she would never believe him, that his feelings were just protectiveness. And he hadn't been able to figure out yet, how to convince Martha that he did truly love her, and that he always had. That he just pretend to not notice her out of protectiveness to himself, because he didn't want to get hurt again. But he was already hurting himself by not telling Martha the truth. And he was afraid of Martha's reaction. What if she wanted to settle down, get married, and have children (that area was already covered)? He wasn't sure if he could handle that. But when he looked at her, with her pregnant stomach, his hearts started to beat faster, and he dared to look to the future with a sense of hope.

That maybe…he wouldn't be lonely anymore…

He had hardly ever thought about taking a relationship with a companion. His Fifth self had thought about expressing her feelings for Peri, but in the end he had been too shy and then he had regenerated. His Fourth self had had feelings for Romana in her second regeneration. Their personalities at the time had just seemed to click, but fate had intervened. And then he had never thought about it again; and then he had met Rose. And for a while, he had thought about it. But Rose had been to young in his opinion, and when he had regenerated into his current body, Rose seemed more his 'own age', but somehow it still felt… wrong.

But with Martha it felt right.

The Doctor started when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Are you okay?" Rose asked.

The Doctor looked at the blonde girl, who at one point had meant so much to him. Inside Martha's mind he had told the truth, travelling with Rose had been like a rollercoaster ride. But when he looked at her now, he knew that he'd been lying to himself when he'd thought that Rose was the one for him. At the time it had felt like that, but now…

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered Rose.

The blonde girl nodded. "It's just that, you seemed so sad for a few moments."

"Sad…?" he asked.

Rose nodded again. "Like you'd lost something."

"Oh, I haven't lost anything. And if I do, I'm bound to find it again."

Rose looked at him in bewilderment. Her Doctor never talked so cryptic.

"No," the Doctor continued, "I was just remembering, and thinking, about things that are in the past. And you can't change the past, just to make the future better."

"Well, _you_ can," Rose pointed out.

"Sometimes, yes, I can," the Doctor admitted, with a wry smile. "But even I make mistakes that cost me dearly."

"I wanted to ask you…" Rose started.

The Doctor looked at her expectantly.

"Where am I?" Rose blurted out.

The Doctor sighed, he knew that the question would come. "I can't tell you."

Rose looked at him. "I'll just ask Mickey then, he's from the future."

The Doctor grabbed her arm. "No Rose, you will not ask Mickey. That can prove to be dangerous. Don't."

Not wanting to address the subject further, he turned away from her and concentrated on the computer once more, but not before glancing towards Jack's office, underneath which Martha was now asleep.

The Doctor continued to type away into the computer, mostly rubbish; he just wanted to stay busy.

Rose walked away from him and did start to talk to Mickey. The Doctor glanced over his shoulder, and locked eyes with Mickey and shook his head.

"No, Rose, I won't tell you," the Doctor heard Mickey say and the young man went back to work.

Rose walked away and sat on the steps in front of the cogwheel.

The Doctor turned back to face the screen and placed his fingers on the keyboard, but simply stared at the screen in front of him. Rose had had a point, sometimes he could change the past. But his past with Martha was something that he didn't want to change. All the memories were too precious. He would just have to hope that his time with Martha lasted as long as he could hold onto her; and just hope for the best, because he wasn't letting go of her anytime soon.

"Doctor?"

He heard suddenly.

Mickey was standing behind him.

"What do I say to Rose, when she asks me more questions?" Mickey asked.

The Doctor gave a wry smile. Rose had now asked three different people what had become of her. "Just tell her that you can't tell her," he answered.

Mickey nodded; and sighed; and then shuffled his feet.

"Spit it out, Mickey," the Doctor said, with an exasperated sigh.

"Well, it's just a bit… weird… to have you and him…" Mickey pointed to the Ninth Doctor, "…here, you know. I don't know what to say to him. We never got on when you were him."

The Doctor smiled at him. "Relax, Mickey. It's not the first time I've bumped into myself and I'm sure it will happen again. And you're not the first to meet a me from the past that you've met as well. Just remember that underneath some character differences, all of me are the same."

Mickey nodded. "But you are a bit more… open and cheery."

"I tend to mirror my previous regeneration. For instance, my Fourth self was chatty and he was always really sure of himself, and my Fifth self was almost shy, whereas my Sixth self was very brash and loud, but his heart was in the right place. My Seventh self was very closed, he kept a lot of things to himself and was very manipulative, even towards Ace, who was my companion at the time, and my Eight self was a bit of a hopeless romantic, and had so much compassion…"

"What about the first three?" Mickey asked, now genuinely intrigued. "If you don't mind me asking?"

"No, I don't mind. Well, my First self was… I think that 'Grandfather' seems right a word to describe him. I already looked old when I started to travel, then I simply used my physical appearance as an advantage, because they underestimated me. My second self was more open, and had a better sense of humour and seemed to be a bit of a tramp. My third self was a bit more hands-on kind of man, he liked to throw himself into the action, he was a martial arts specialist too, but he did tended to be a bit… preachy. The only one who could ever settle an argument between my Second and Third self was my First self!" the Doctor said with a wistful smile.

"Right…" Mickey muttered, only now learning more about the Doctor, and he had known the man for seven years; but Mickey knew that the Doctor had changed, and the reason behind it was Martha. But one thing still bugged him a bit. "Why did you keep on calling me an idiot when we met?"

"Because you _were_ a bit of an idiot when we met," the Doctor said with an apologetic shrug.

"So, all of you are completely different?" Gwen asked.

The Doctor looked up.

Gwen gave a shy smile. "I overheard. I didn't mean to pry," she added quickly.

The Doctor smiled back. It was odd, but he felt perfectly comfortable with telling things about himself that he usually kept hidden. "You don't pry, Gwen. It's okay. Yes, all of me are different, but underneath the differences we all have the same traits. We all hate injustice… Daleks…we love discovery…humans…"

He stopped talking when he suddenly heard a faint moan and then a loud scream coming from underneath Jack's office; Martha…

_to be continued_


	5. Chapter 5

I wrote this chapter, because it is sweet. I have a soft spot for it. The first part has got nothing to do with the overall plot, but I hope that you enjoy it none the less

* * *

_The Doctor and Martha sat in the library of the Tardis._

_Martha had a big photo album on her lap, the Doctor was sitting next to her on the sofa. He was pointing at a photograph that was in the album._

_"That's the Fourth me," he said._

_"I've knew I had seen that scarf before, it's in the wardrobe room now, isn't it? But one of the edges is all torn… wonder how that happened…" Martha said with a smile._

_"Oh, my Fifth self did that, right after the regeneration. And you'll find plenty of clothes and other things in the wardrobe that I used to wear and that previous companions used to wear. Remember that yellow dress that you wore to dinner on Arkon after the events on Sunday?" _

_Martha nodded; she remembered, and shuddered a bit under the memory. She had seen a lot, but those talking otters still freaked her out a bit. _

_"A former companion called Victoria Waterfield used to own that. She liked wearing dresses. Even Sarah-Jane wore a dress off hers once." _

_Martha turned the pages of album. She came across a different photo of the Fourth Doctor; on the photo he had his arm around a young woman with long blond hair and she was wearing what appeared to be a school girl uniform._

_"Who is she?" Martha asked._

_The Doctor sighed and traced the womans face with his index finger. _

_"Her name was Romanadvoratrelundar," he said quietly._

_Martha looked at him. She took his hand, which was still tracing the photo, in hers. She could sense that the woman in the photo had meant a great deal to him._

_"Romana for short, I even threatened to call her Fred for a while," the Doctor continued. "She was a Time Lady, thrust upon me against my will, but we had a very good relationship once we got to know each other. Even more so in her second regeneration."_

_"You two were close then?" Martha asked carefully._

_"Oh yeah, at times she was smarter than me," the Doctor said._

_"That can't have been good for your ego," Martha teased._

_"Oi!" the Doctor exclaimed, but relaxed when Martha gave his hand a squeeze, trying to assure him that she was only teasing him. _

_Martha was in doubt to ask another question. Romana had been a Time Lady… so she must have fought in the Time War…_

_"Yes, she's dead…" the Doctor whispered._

_Martha looked at him, startled to realise that he had answered the question without her asking it._

_Together the two Doctors sat on the sofa, both lost in thought._

_Suddenly the Doctor sat up and pulled the photo album from Martha's hands, closed it and placed it on the table in front of them and pulled Martha to her feet. _

_"Come on," he said. "I want to show you something."_

_He led her through the corridors, until they had reached to console room. He let go of Martha's hand and started to run around the console, turning that dial, pulling that lever, and checking that gage. _

_"Where are we going?" Martha asked amused. She liked it when he surprised her with a mystery trip._

_"You'll see…" he answered mysteriously._

_Martha shrugged and settled down on the jump seat, and waited for the usual thump indicating that the TARDIS had landed. _

_When it had, the Doctor rushed over to Martha and all but thrust her towards the doors, grabbing his coat in passing. _

_When they exited the sentient ship, Martha found herself just opposite the Eifel Tower. _

_"You've taken me to France?" she asked with a bright smile._

_"Yep," he said, popping the 'p'. He thrust out his arms like a ring master. "Doctor Jones, welcome to Paris, France in 1979. And we've come here, because I wanted to introduce you to someone." _

_He once again took her hand in his and led her towards the Eifel Tower._

_"Who did you want me to meet?" Martha asked._

_"Someone… very special," he said, but didn't elaborate further. _

_In the distance, Martha could see two people walking towards them, a man and a woman. The man was tall and was wearing a rather long scarf, the woman was wearing what looked like a school girl's uniform._

_"Doctor…?" Martha asked, clearly seeing where this was going._

_The Doctor let go of her hand and rushed forward, stopping the Fourth Doctor and Romana._

_"Hello, Doctor, Romana," he said, with a grin from ear to ear._

_The two looked at the strange man in front of them._

_"How do you know who we are?" the Fourth Doctor asked._

_"Take a guess?" the Doctor answered. _

_The Fourth Doctor looked at the man in the pinstriped suit and his big eyes became even bigger then they usually were as realisation dawned. _

_"Oh, I see," he said and thrust out his hand._

_The Doctor took it and shook it enthusiastically. _

_"Sorry to burst in on you like this, but I was wondering if you could do me a favour?" the Doctor asked his predecessor. _

_"If I can, I'm glad to be of service to myself," the Fourth Doctor answered, with a bright smile._

_Martha looked at the two Doctors in front of her and smiled. Romana came over to her._

_"Hello," she said._

_"Hi, I'm Martha," Martha said._

_Romana shook Martha's hand. "Romana." _

_"I know," Martha said. "The Doctor showed me a photo of you and the Doctor back in the TARDIS, and out of nowhere he brought me here."_

_"Why…?" Romana asked bemused._

_"No idea," Martha said. _

_Suddenly, Martha was grabbed from behind. She let out a scream as a strong arm wrapped around her throat and another was wrapped around her chest, locking both her arms against her body._

_"Doctor!" she screamed._

_"In a minute," he said, continuing his conversation with his Fourth self._

_"Doctor, help me!" she screamed again. She started thrashing about, kicking her legs in the air, desperate to gain some kind of upper hand. _

_"In a minute!" the Doctor yelled back again, never taking his eyes of his previous self. They had now been joined by Romana._

_Martha managed to wrench herself free, how she did it, she had no idea; and turned to face her attacker. She stared in shock at his face; it was Tom!_

_"Doctor, please help me!" Martha backed away from him slightly._

"Martha!"

_"Doctor, please!"_

"Martha, wake up"

_Tom lunged at her and hit her hard across the face. "Doctor!" Martha pleaded once again._

_But the two Doctors and Romana just stood there, talking and laughing._

"Martha, open your eyes."

Martha woke with a start to stare into her Doctor's eyes, concern shone in them.

Out of nowhere she burst into tears and fell into the Doctor's embrace. He held her tight as she cried.

Once she'd settled down a bit, he asked, "What did you dream about?"

Martha released him from her vice like grip. "We were in France… you know… when you took me to meet the Fourth you and Romana?"

The Doctor nodded. At the time he had felt a surge of showing off and remembrance and nostalgia; and had, despite knowing that it was probably -not probably, very likely- a bad idea, brought her to meet his Fourth self and Romana. But Martha's subconscious had plagued the memory of a wonderful afternoon, in which the four of them had spend several hours talking and laughing in the sun; and had turned it into a nightmare.

"You three were talking, when Tom grabbed me… and hit me… and you did nothing… to help me."

Once again, Martha burst into tears. She was shaking in fear.

"Ssh," the Doctor tried to sooth her, "you're alright, I'm here, and I will always help you. You only had a nightmare. I will never allow Tom to hurt you again."

The Doctor continued to hold his friend, trying his best to sooth her.

He caught sight of Jack, who was peering down the ladder. He saw that the Doctor was comforting Martha and disappeared from sight again.

Gently, the Doctor rocked back and forth, he caressed Martha's short hair, which stood up in unlikely directions; just like his sometimes did.

With her head buried into the Doctor's chest, Martha started to settle down. Martha sniffled and extracted herself from his embrace a bit and looked into his eyes. The only thing she saw was concern.

Their eyes remained locked. Martha saw something else in his eyes that she couldn't identify; something more than mere concern.

And the Doctor saw it too in Martha's eyes.

Both of them had denied some truths about this new relationship that they shared; that feelings had changed.

Slowly, the Doctor placed his hand on Martha's cheek, still looking in Martha's eyes. He felt that she didn't pull away; in fact she leaned in, just a fraction, but she did lean into him.

Shifting his gaze to her lips, he noticed that they had slightly parted, and that her breath was becoming a bit more rapid.

He leaned in as well.

Time slowed around him as his lips brushed slightly against Martha's.

Time stopped as his lips met Martha's in a gentle kiss, a gentle caressing. Soon, the kiss became more passionate, and in the back of his throat the Doctor gave a small moan.

Martha gasped slightly and pulled away. She rested her forehead on his chest.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"No…I'm the one who's sorry," the Doctor responded. "You're not ready for this… I shouldn't have…"

Martha looked up and into his eyes. "You're sorry that we kissed?"

"No! It's something…" he faltered.

Martha looked at him expectantly, trying to course him into completing the sentence. "Something…?"

"…that I've wanted to do for a while," he whispered, completing the sentence. He turned his gaze away from hers and found the wall behind her much more interesting.

"Really…?" Martha whispered.

The Doctor looked back at her and could only nod. "I have been for a while, but you've had such a difficult time of late, that I put my own feelings aside."

For a moment Martha was to shock to reply, she had never expected this, she had never expected that he…

"Doctor…?" Martha started. "Have your…feelings…? I don't know…"

Out of the blue, Ianto's face appeared. "Doctor? The red spots have appeared again."

Reluctantly, the Doctor stood up, and made his way to the ladder. "You should try and get some more sleep," he said, as Martha was right behind him, attending to come with him.

"I'm fine," Martha said. "I already had some and what if you need my help?"

Martha only looked at him and knew that this conversation wasn't over...

The Doctor didn't respond and helped Martha up the narrow ladder.

_to be continued_


	6. Chapter 6

I'm not entirly happy with this chapter, I had trouble perfecting it. But I still hope you like it.

* * *

The Ninth Doctor saw his successor and Martha, whose eyes were red, emerge from Jack's bedroom. He wondered how close they were. Martha had only started to make herself heard that she was having a nightmare, and the Doctor had already gone to see her. It was as if he was completely tuned to her.

He remembered having a similar relationship with Sarah-Jane, Peri and Ace. All three companions had meant a great deal to him, probably more so then others. He had always know when those two had been in trouble, but Martha was different he realised.

"What is it?" Ten asked.

The Ninth Doctor was pulled from his thoughts. "The red spots are there again. I think its best that we go outside again and try to contact them."

"Suggestions on how we do that?" Ten asked.

"We make 'contact' with them…" Nine answered, looking at his next self pointedly.

Ten's eyes went big, he pursed his lips and nodded. As one, and ignoring everyone else, they went outside.

***

The two Doctor's stood next to each other on the Plass, looking up at the sky. Above them, about five metres into the air, three red spots were clearly visible in the night sky. Behind them, Martha, Jack, Gwen, Ianto, Mickey, and Rose were watching.

"Contact," Ten muttered.

"Contact," Nine muttered as well.

Both men stood stock still, with their eyes closed.

"What's going on," Gwen whispered.

"I think that they're trying to make telepathic contact with whatever it is," Martha answered.

"Right…, because the Doctor is telepathic," Gwen said understanding, because she knew how the Tenth Doctor had helped Martha only six months ago.

"Telepathic…?" Rose said.

But nobody could explain, because suddenly the red spots grew bigger and bigger, and ruptured open. From them, three creatures glided down, as the red spots became smaller again and vanished inside the creatures.

They were about the same size as a human male. They had long arms, with three fingers on each hand. Their legs were equally long and the odd thing was that their feet were so small that they seemed that in no way they could support the weight of their bodies. They were almost transparent, but in the dark it was hard to make out; and inside their bodies, at the location were a human heart would be, were the red spots.

Their faces were beautiful and looked surprisingly human, with eyes, a nose and a mouth.

They hovered in the air about a metre in front of the Doctors.

_"Return us to our home." _

Martha glanced around, where had that voice come from?

_"Return us to our home."_

Martha looked back up to the creatures, their mouths hadn't moved, but there had been sound. Suddenly Martha realised that these creatures were telepathic and she had only heard the voice inside her head.

_"Return us to our home,"_ the creatures once again said. They almost sounding pleadingly.

"Where is your home?" the Ninth Doctor asked.

Both Doctors now had their eyes open again.

_"The Void,"_ the creatures said.

Only now Martha realised that they spoke as one.

"But that's impossible… nothing can live inside the Void," Ten said.

_"We can, for we are the Guardians of the Void,"_ they said.

"You 'guard' the Void…How?" Ten asked.

_"We can exist inside the Void and for short periods of time on the outside as well. We monitor all inside the Void, and guard it. Some time ago, we do not know when, we followed a sphere into this reality. Its origins were unknown to us, but all the walls closed and we became trapped inside this dimension." _

"Oh…," Ten said, "…I did that. When I closed the breach in London, which led into the Void, I simultaneously made sure that all walls collapsed. But three years ago, the walls weakened again, why didn't you go home then?"

_"We found the breach too late, and we were unable to return,"_ the Guardians said.

"Hold on," Nine said. "What kind of 'sphere' are we talking about?"

"A Void ship," Ten answered.

_"We came to this dimension and watched the humans probe the sphere. Normally we would have intervened, because we sensed that the sphere was dangerous; but since we did not know anything about the sphere, we choose to let the humans do it for us, they were not causing any harm that we could detect and then you came."_

All three Guardians pointed to the Tenth Doctor, who shifted under their gaze.

"What was in the sphere?" Nine asked Ten.

"Daleks," Ten muttered.

Nine sighed.

"_We watched you close the breach, we were too late to stop you, so that we could return first. We were disorientated for a period of time, and we found that you were gone. Please, help us. We can not survive here for very much longer." _

The Tenth Doctor clasped his hand together. "Right," he said all business like, "the Guardians want to go home, let's see if we can do that!"

He turned to them. "What do you think it will take for us to send you home?"

The three Guardians just hovered in the air. _"We are not sure…"_

The Guardians seemed to confer between them for a few moments, and then one glided forward.

_"We ask your forgiveness for this. We measured your bio-readings and we have deduced that you two are physically the strongest."_

The Guardian that had glided forward reached out and put his hands on each of the two Doctors foreheads. The two Doctors and the Guardian gasped, but maybe it was just the Doctors, and went rigid.

***

There was no up, there was no down. Still he could move.

There was no light, there was no dark. Still he could see perfectly.

There was no future, there was no past. Still he could feel time pass him by.

There was nothing. Still he knew that there was something here.

He remembered who he was, but that was it.

He felt his other self being next to him; being one with him.

He felt his memories being shared with his other self and the Guardian, but he didn't mind.

He felt his other self's shock, when he learned of his future self's true feelings.

He felt his other self's relief, when he learned that all was going to be okay.

He learned what the Void truly was.

He learned how he could help.

***

The Doctor staggered back a few paces. A surge of relief overwhelmed him; Rose's future self wasn't responsible for this, but he knew that his other self who was now living with her in that parallel world would have stopped her, and if his instructions were followed, the dimension cannon would have been destroyed by now. He felt Martha's hands on his back. He turned and looked into her concerned eyes.

"I'm fine," he said and hugged her.

Martha held him close. "I was so worried," she muttered, and pulled him a little closer. "You were completely unresponsive for almost an hour."

"Really… that long?" he asked her bemused.

Martha nodded into his chest.

Next to them the Ninth Doctor and Rose almost had a similar conversation, only the Doctor wasn't hugging Rose.

"Well, the good thing about this, is that we've figured out how to send them home," the Tenth Doctor said with a bright smile. "I've got a plan, well, when I say I, I mean we, but believe me when I say that it's a rather good one."

He turned to his predecessor. "Shall we?"

_to be continued_


	7. Chapter 7

The plot thickens with this chapter... well, the later part.

I hope that you enjoy!

* * *

Both Doctors were running around the Torchwood Hub, grabbing wires, connecting them to the Rift Monitor; typing things into the computer, shoving people out of their way, and explaining everything as they went, taking everything in turns.

"The Guardians guard the Void, hence the name Guardian," Ten said, while typing a few very complicated looking calculations into the computer. "Not to be mistaken with the other Guardians, I mean the Black and the White Guardian, because they are completely different. Anyway… the Guardians were accidently left behind in this dimension when I closed the walls after the thing in London."

"And then they were unable to go back home?" Martha asked. She was perched on a chair behind Tosh's old desk, staying out of the way of the two Time Lords.

"Yes," Nine answered. "But they were strong enough to come here, to Cardiff, they sensed the presence of the rift, and knew that it was their ticket home."

"But…," Ten continued, "…they couldn't breach the walls. But… _he_ can," and he pointed to his Ninth self, who was positively beaming.

"He can…? How…? Why…?" Rose asked.

"Because in my timeline the breach hasn't fully closed yet, simply my presence is enough to open the breach for the astonishing amount of time, in which it is safe, of 0.42 seconds," Nine exclaimed, dodging out if Ten's way as he made his way to the cogwheel shaped entrance to the Hub.

"Where are you going?" Rose yelled after him.

"To get my Tardis!" he yelled back over his shoulder.

Rose turned to the Tenth Doctor. "What does he need the Tardis for?"

"It's linked to his timeline, so we can only use his, and tie it to the rift, to open the breach," he answered in one breath, but not looking at her.

A few moments later the Tardis appeared, and the Doctor came rushing out, carrying two thick cables, connecting them to the rift manipulator.

Then he turned to Martha. "Martha?"

Martha looked at him questioningly. The Ninth Doctor reached into his pocket and extracted his sonic screwdriver. "You know how to use this?" On Martha's confirmation he added, "I've preset it, go outside, turn it on and tell the Guardians that as soon we open the breach into the Void, they will know and that they can not hesitate."

As Martha made her way outside, the Ninth Doctor looked at his successor and nodded; the Tenth Doctor mouthed a silent 'thank you'. During the telepathic contact, both Doctors had realised that this could become very dangerous and someone had to be outside to warn the Guardians, which was going to be the safest place. It had not taken them long to agree that that person was going to be Martha. They had both wanted her nowhere near this. The Tenth Doctor knew that Martha was going to be very mad if she found out that they had gone a little out of their way to keep her safe, but the Tenth Doctor would face her wrath bravely.

The Tenth Doctor grabbed Jack and pushed him towards the Tardis. "Get in there," he said.

He pointed out one lever. "No matter what happens, keep that lever down."

Jack nodded, but the Doctor was adamant, "I mean it Jack… you keep that lever down, I don't care if you have to heave on it with all of your weight, _keep it down._"

"Doctor! I got it!" Jack exclaimed.

The Doctor ran from the Tardis, pulling Martha's old mobile from his pocket and calling Martha on her own; but Jack couldn't hear what was said.

The Ninth Doctor's face appeared in the open door. "Ready?"

Jack gave him thumbs up.

Jack heard the Tenth Doctor scream; "Now!", the man could really scream loud.

There was a bright flash, and the lever started to move upwards. Jack held on tight and pulled it down. Sparks flew from the console in protest, as the two Doctors made her do something that she wasn't designed for; ripping open a breach in time and space. The lever started to move upwards again and Jack held on tighter, starting to struggle.

Suddenly there was a huge explosion that probably shook the whole of Wales, and everything around Jack went black.

*****

Jack's body was dragged to the sofa by Ianto and Mickey, and Ianto remained with him, clutching Jack's hand in his. It was watched in utter bemusement by the Ninth Doctor and Rose.

Rose was about to comment, when Jack woke up with a gasp for breath. Rose looked like she was about to faint, the Ninth Doctor looked like he was about to throw up.

The Tenth Doctor walked over to them. "Now you know why Jack is wrong, he's a fixed point in time and space."

The Ninth Doctor looked at him. "How…?" he asked incredulously.

The Doctor sighed. "You'll find out soon."

Jack sat up, with help from Ianto. "Did it work? Are the Guardians home?" he asked.

The Doctor nodded. "Yep, they're home, sweet home. And ripping the breach open only resulted in blowing a minor hole in the console. Unfortunately, you were standing right beside it, when it blew."

Jack smiled. "I've died because of worse injuries."

The cogwheel rolled aside, revealing a very mad Martha. She made her way to her Doctor and stood before him, with her hands on her hips, glaring.

"What…?" the Doctor asked innocently.

"Just say 'yes' or 'no', did you send me outside on purpose?" Martha asked through squinted eyes.

The Doctor swallowed, he didn't dare to lie. Martha scared him. "Yes…" he answered meekly.

Martha nodded. "One day…" she muttered menacingly, "…one day, I'll make you pay for that."

The Doctor grinned at her and pulled her in a hug. Martha swung her arms around his waist and squeezed a bit. She wasn't really mad at him, he was just being protective.

"So…," Jack said. "Who wants to go and celebrate this happy ending?"

The Doctor looked at Martha, who nodded. "We are in, Jack."

The Ninth Doctor and Rose weren't coming. "I really have to go and fix the TARDIS. So we'll be off."

"Are you sure?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Nine said.

"Okay."

Martha stepped forward and hugged the Doctor. "It was nice meeting you," she said.

The Doctor hugged her back. "I hope that you have a beautiful and healthy baby."

Martha released him and turned to Rose. "Take care," she said.

Martha knew it was childish of her, but somewhere deep down she was still jealous of Rose, because of the feelings she unleashed in the Doctor. And even after the kiss they had shared a few hours ago, Martha was still sure that the Doctor's feelings were coming from protectiveness; he didn't love her, not like she…cared… for him.

The Ninth Doctor and Rose made their goodbyes and left. The Doctor wanted to hang around in the vortex until the Tardis was fixed.

The Torchwood Team and the Doctor and Martha went out to celebrate.

***

Three hours later, a very tired Martha, Doctor, Jack walked onto the Plass, heading for the Tardis. Gwen, Mickey and Ianto had already gone home.

"Was it strange, Doctor? Seeing your previous self, has it happened before?" Martha asked. She had wanted to ask before this, but she had never been able to spot the right time; and now seemed as good as any.

"Well, it has happened before. But now was just an accident, just like when I met my Fifth self. And the time when my Sixth self bumped into my second self. And once my first three me's were deliberately put together to solve a huge problem that almost caused the complete destruction of the Time Lords. Oh, and there was the time when my Eighth self had to visit all of his past selves to remember is own present. But to answer your question, Martha… yes, it is very strange to meet myself and no, I'll never get used to it."

Martha nodded. The three friends stopped in front of the TARDIS.

"Well, Jack, see you around," the Doctor said, giving the immortal man a hug.

"See ya, Doctor," Jack said. "Take good care of Martha," he added in a whisper.

The Doctor nodded. Jack turned to Martha and enveloped her in a hug. "Take good care of the Doctor," he whispered in her ear.

Martha gave him a smile. "Of course."

The Doctor put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the key.

Suddenly, behind him, the distinct sound of metal colliding with metal could be heard. Tires screeched in protest. The Doctor whirled around, just in time to see one car roll on its roof and another make a hundred and eighty degree turn and stopping.

"Oh my God," Martha whispered, and was already on her way to the crash, with the Doctor and Jack right behind her.

Jack was a bit slower, because he already had his mobile phone to his ear as he called for an ambulance.

With her pregnant stomach it took Martha a bit longer to get to the scene, but she still made good time. She veered off to the right, to the car that was upside down. She crouched down beside it; inside was a woman with long hair, a nasty cut was on the side of her head and Martha could see the bones of the skull, and her leg had an unnatural angle. Somehow her seatbelt had snapped, so she was thrown around the car.

Jack appeared at Martha's side. "Ambulance is on its way."

Martha crawled a bit into the car, not responding to Jack's protests. Martha pressed two fingers in the woman's neck, she couldn't feel a pulse.

"Jack, drag her out of the car," she ordered.

"But, what if her back is broken, I could make it worse," he protested.

"Jack, I prefer her alive, now drag her out!"

Jack did as he was told. Martha moved out of his way and glanced to the other car. The Doctor had pried open the door and was talking to the driver, who –Martha couldn't make out if it was a male or female- was probably shaken, but uninjured.

Martha returned her attention back to her patient. Jack had dragged her from the car and had sprawled the woman on the pavement. Martha started CPR; thirty compressions, two breaths; she repeated the process over and over again. While she did the compressions, counting them off in her head, she checked for further injuries.

Out of nowhere a gunshot rung out and next to her Jack dropped to the ground with a bullet in his head. From shock Martha almost stopped with the compressions, and she looked up. Another man was holding the Doctor at gunpoint, indicating that he should remain on his knees beside the car. It turned out to be a man who was driving the other car, because he got out of the car, and had removed a crash helmet.

_What is going on here?_ Martha thought.

The man closest to her, who had shot Jack, pulled off his ski mask. "Get up," he ordered.

"No!" Martha said. "This woman is dying, and I'm helping her."

The man lowered the gun and pulled the trigger, putting a bullet in the woman's head, killing her instantly.

Martha gasped in shock.

"Get up," the man repeated.

Martha put her hands on the floor and managed to get to her feet. Across from her, she saw the Doctor do the same, as the man who had been pointing the gun at the Doctor was now coming towards Martha and her assailant.

"Don't do anything stupid, Doctor," the man next to Martha said.

He had put his gun away and had now pulled a knife. He grabbed Martha from behind and put the knife in front of her stomach. "Act stupid, Doctor… and this baby gets it."

The Doctor had been slowly walking towards them, but he now stopped dead in his tracks. He put up his hands. "Let Martha go, I will go with you…" and then he said something that made Martha's heart stop beating for a second, "… you can torture me again, to your heart's content, I don't care, but let Martha go."

In the distance the ambulance could be heard, and behind her, Martha could hear a van stop, and a door was opened.

She was pulled towards it. But knowing that these were the men that had tortured the Doctor gave Martha strength. She started thrashing, but stopped instantly when she felt the knife now firmly against her stomach.

"We don't want to hurt this pretty baby, but I will hurt you if you don't stop thrashing," the man whispered in her ear.

The other man still had his gun in his hand, which he was still pointing at the Doctor, and motioned for the man that was holding Martha to hurry up.

Martha was dragged into the van, and the man was just about to close the backdoors, when Jack came back to life with a gasp. This startled the man so much that he pulled the trigger of the gun.

The backdoors slammed closed, but not before Martha saw the Doctor falling down to the ground, crying out in pain.

"Doctor…!" she screamed.

Suddenly, a cloth came over her mouth. She recognized the smell coming from it –chloroform. She tried to fight the effect it had, but couldn't.

Her world resolved to black.

_to be continued_


	8. Chapter 8

Martha woke.

She was lying in a comfortable bed, she felt that she was still dressed in her clothes, only her shoes were off. Her head felt like it had been stuffed full with cotton and her mouth was dry. Her hands moved to her stomach, her baby kicked…

Gingerly, she opened her eyes. She squinted a few times, and her vision cleared a bit, but the room she was in was still fuzzy. She closed her eyes again, and after a few moments she fell asleep.

The next times she woke, and her vision came back, she found that the world was no longer fuzzy, but was in its normal high definition colour. She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and took in the room she was in.

The first thing she noticed was that it had no windows, all the light came from a big chandelier that hung from the ceiling and a small lamp on the bedside table.

The bed she was sitting on was a huge four poster king sized bed, and if she wasn't so mad for being kidnapped, she would have quiet liked it; it was just her taste.

For a second she went rigid, she had been kidnapped. God, that only happened when she travelled with the Doctor! But she was travelling with the Doctor… and he'd gotten shot! When she was kidnapped, Jack had been killed, and the Doctor had been shot!

Memories flowed back into her mind as she remembered the events of her kidnap. The car accident, the two men, Jack being murdered right next to her, the van… and then the Doctor getting shot. She could only hope that he was alright, there was so much that she still wanted to share with him.

Martha pushed the concerns she felt for the Doctor aside, there wasn't anything she could do about it, and if she knew the Doctor –and she did- he wouldn't let a simple bullet stop him from finding her. So she simply concentrated on the problems that lay before her.

Martha had been imprisoned, with and without the Doctor, often enough to know that the best course of action was to first find out if there were any means of escape.

She got up and walked slowly around the room. Besides the bed, there was a dining table with two chairs, a comfortable chair with a table on a nice and soft rug.

On opposite sides of the room there were two doors. Martha walked over to one, it was locked. She walked across the room to the other door and opened it. Behind the door, she found a small bathroom, with a sink, with a mirror above it, and a shower cubicle.

Martha left the bathroom and closed the door and went back to the other door, the locked one. She balled her fist and banged on the door a few times.

The next course of action was to try and attract some attention in order to get some answers about the reason why you were detained, in case you didn't know already.

"Hello…?" she yelled. "Hello, anyone there?"

When after ten minutes of shouting and banging on the door –which frankly made her hand hurt-, Martha gave up.

She checked her watch, which was digital, and saw that it was now 1PM.

After retrieving a glass of water from the bathroom, Martha walked over to the chair and sat down, and literally started twiddling her thumbs.

Tip three about imprisonment was… wait. Because, and this fact had proven itself on several occasions, at some point _all_ the bad guys came, and gloated, and explained exactly what the reason was that they felt you prisoner for.

Which is what Martha did, she sat down and waited…

***

With his arm around Jack's shoulder, the Doctor hobbled along, grunting in pain. His right hand was placed firmly on his right thigh, putting pressure on the bullet wound.

"Please tell me that you got the license plate of that van…" the Doctor said.

"I got it…" Jack grunted.

The Doctor was all skin and bones, but all the same Jack staggered a bit under the weight. It wasn't easy half carrying a person when you've only come back to life five minutes ago. And there was the fact that the Doctor had scrunched Jack's coat into a ball in his left hand, and had somehow managed to add a bit of skin to ball as well, which made Jack's shoulder hurt. But that was okay, he knew that the Doctor was just as upset about Martha's kidnap as he was.

"When we get back into the Hub, we'll clean up your wound, and I'll run a check on the license plate," Jack said, while manoeuvring the Doctor onto the invisible lift.

Jack briefly let go of the Doctor and pushed the buttons on his vortex manipulator, which set the lift in motion.

During the long ride down neither of the two men spoke, both lost in their concern for Martha.

The Doctor knew that Martha was very capable of taking care of herself, but that didn't stop him from being very concerned. He had worried about her the second since they had starting travelling together again. When they had found out she was pregnant, that had caused him to be even more worried, and now… since he had figured out for himself that he was indeed in love with her… now… he was almost sick with worry.

But he was injured, a primitive weapon –a gun, which he hated- had hurt him. He had been shot before... and blimey, did it hurt. He was injured, now of all times, when he should be out there finding Martha.

Jack helped him off the platform, ushered him across the Hub, and hoisted him onto a bed in the Medical Bay.

"Let me take a look at that," Jack said.

"You're not coming anywhere near me!" the Doctor exclaimed. "You're not a doctor. Martha can take a look at it, when she's back."

"Doctor, that could take a while," Jack argued. "You can't let the wound become infected."

"Fine," the Doctor grumbled, "I'll do it myself."

He lowered himself from the bed, and lumbered to a nearby cabinet, and started to open drawers. When he couldn't find what he needed, he went to another one, but half way there his left leg gave out and he crumbled to the floor.

Jack hovered over him, arms folded. "Will you let me help you now?" he asked with a slight smug smile.

The Doctor grunted something, which Jack took to be a 'yes, please'. He reached down and helped the Doctor back on the bed.

As Jack tended to the wound –thank God the bullet had gone straight through and had only taken a piece of flesh with it- the Doctor started thinking out loud. "Why have they taken Martha? Is it to get to me? No, then they would have simply taken me. Is it to get to you, Jack?"

Jack didn't bother to respond.

"No", the Doctor continued. "That wouldn't work either, if they wanted you, they could simply come to Cardiff and take you. Maybe they need her help with something? No, because then they would could have come to London and waited … OW! …until Martha and I came to visit Martha's family."

"Maybe they need her _for_ something?" Jack suggested.

"Like what?" the Doctor asked.

"I don't know, just thinking out loud." Jack said, without looking at the Doctor.

Both men fell silent.

"You think she's okay…?" the Doctor muttered, allowing himself to voice his concerns.

Jack finished dressing the Doctor's wound and rested his hands on the bed next to the Doctor's leg. "I'm sure she is."

"I…I need her back, Jack."

Jack put his hand on the Doctor's shoulder, shocked from the statement that his old friend had made.

"What are you talking about, Doc?" Jack asked.

"You heard me," the Doctor muttered, sounding a bit harsh.

"I did hear you, I just don't understand," Jack assured him.

The Doctor was silent. He opened his mouth, intending to say something and then closed it again. When he had done that three times, Jack had enough. "Just spit it out, Doctor!"

"I'm in love with her," the Doctor blurted out.

"It's about time…!" Jack exclaimed.

The Doctor looked at him in utter bemusement. "You knew!"

"Well… _yeah_," Jack said. "It's not like you did anything to hide it over the last six months."

"But…but…," the Doctor stammered.

"So… what made you realise it?" Jack asked with a smirk.

"When…I came to her house six months ago, I realised that I had been hiding behind old pain and fears for too long," the Doctor answered absentmindedly. "But Jack, I did everything to hide my feelings… and you knew?"

"Yeah," Jack said. "I mean, you have to know you to see it of course. But once you did see it, it was pretty obvious. So… why now…?"

"I think I should muster up the courage to tell Martha first, don't you think?" the Doctor asked his immortal friend with a smile.

Jack smiled back, and placed his hand on the Doctor's shoulder. "You're right, I shouldn't pry… but I want full details later, okay?"

The Doctor didn't comment, but just smiled. "Help me to a computer," he said. "I want to do a search for that number plate."

Jack obliged.

_to be continued_


	9. Chapter 9

Martha went to get her third glass of water and came out of the bathroom when she heard that the locked door was unlocked and opened.

Two men entered, she recognized them immediately as her kidnappers.

"Doctor Milligan…" man number one said.

"Jones…" Martha said. "My last name is Jones."

"You are still married to Doctor Tom Milligan, therefore your last name is Milligan."

Martha said nothing, and simply glared at them.

"You're probably wondering why you are here?" man number two asked.

"The thought has crossed my mind, yeah," Martha said, the sarcasm dripping from the sentence.

"Because of your baby," man number one answered.

Martha blinked. "My baby…?" she asked, utterly bemused, subconsciously putting her hands protectively over her stomach.

"Yes, your baby will be our Master's ultimate revenge for the Doctor. His child raised by his enemy's followers."

Martha just stared at them as they left the room, after making only that statement.

They thought that her baby was the Doctor's?

But that was insane… this baby was Tom's. Okay, Martha would admit that once during a night when the Doctor was sleeping next to her in her bed, she had fantasized what it would be like if this baby was his. But that wasn't the case. She was sure that the Doctor cared for her, there was no doubt in her mind. But he didn't love her, not in the way she still loved him; she had never stopped loving him… and was now in love with him again…

And if she thought about it, the men who had kidnapped her did have their math right. She had started travelling with the Doctor again six months ago, and she was now six months pregnant. But why did they think that the Doctor was the father, that didn't make sense.

It was far more natural for Tom to be the father, he was still her husband after all; Martha did make a quick mental note to herself to call her mother when this was over and ask if her lawyer had send the divorce papers over, it was six months ago since she filed for them.

Shaking her head, Martha sat back down and downed the glass of water she was still holding in three large gulps.

So… they thought that the Doctor was the father… well, let them keep thinking that. She wasn't going to correct them. That little fact was keeping her and her baby safe… for now at least…

Several minutes later she regretted drinking the water, because now she had to pee… again. It was all she did lately, throw up and pee…

When she returned from the bathroom, a young girl was standing in the middle of the room, holding a tray.

"Who are you?" Martha demanded.

She wasn't the demanding kind of person, but she was just a teensy bit ticked off with the whole situation.

The girl cowered a bit. "My name is Lisa, it is my job to take care of you and get anything you want."

"How about my freedom?" Martha asked sarcastically.

Lisa didn't respond, she placed the small tray, laden with a plate with three sandwiches and a cup of tea, on the table.

"Your lunch, Doctor Milligan," she whispered.

"My name is Martha Jones, not Milligan," Martha corrected.

Lisa looked at her. "But I was told your name was Milligan."

"Well, you were told wrong," Martha said.

Lisa nodded. "Doctor Jones," she said, and added in a little voice, "When _they_ are here, can I call you Doctor Milligan then. Because if I don't, they'll be very upset."

Martha didn't agree, but she didn't disagree either; she merely gave a head wobble. Martha pointed to the tray. "Is that for me?"

Lisa nodded. "Yes, I have to bring you food three times a day. It's gone 7PM now, but I didn't think you wanted a hot meal."

"No…I'm still a bit queasy from the chloroform, it's why I've been drinking the water, I'm hoping it helps to clear it from my system."

Martha sat down at the table, and started munching on a sandwich, and washed it down with the warm tea.

Lisa sat on the edge of the bed, wringing her hands together. Martha observed her as she ate the sandwiches. Lisa was clearly really nervous. But about what? Was it the fact that she was in a room with her? Or maybe… because she was afraid for the two men.

But Martha knew as well that she wouldn't get an answer from her immediately. Nervous people needed a bit of coercion into telling their problems, but not too much and not too hard, because then they clamped up and you never got answers.

And travelling with the Doctor –who had turned hiding feelings and keeping facts close to his chest into an Olympic sport- had taught her exactly how to deal with this.

*****

Torchwood Hub 7:30AM

The Doctor was sitting behind Mickey's computer, when the cogwheel rolled out of said person's way.

"Hey, Doctor? Haven't left yet?" Mickey asked.

The Doctor merely grunted in reply.

Jack came out of his office and put his arm around Mickey's shoulder. "Leave him alone Mickey, if you value your health. He's in a very bad mood since he's been shot and Martha's been kidnapped."

Mickey blinked. "Shot… kidnapped…what? Why…?"

"We haven't been able to figure the 'why' out… yet," the Doctor said. "The 'who'… now that I can tell you."

Mickey and Jack looked at him expectantly.

"They're the same men… who tortured me," the Doctor said quietly. "Now, I have no idea why they grabbed Martha, but what I do now, is that the license plate is registered to a man called Brian Emmerson, and I've got his address."

He waved a little paper.

Jack plucked it from his hand.

"Oi…!" the Doctor yelled.

"Doctor, you got shot in the leg, I had to help you into this chair. And now you want to go and run off?"

"Jack…" the Doctor said exasperated.

"Doctor," Jack said in the same tone of voice. "I want to find Martha just as much as you do…"

"You sure about that, Jack," the Doctor said and looked at him pointedly.

Jack continued, "but with that leg, you're not able to do much until its healed."

The Doctor nodded; Jack was right, but that didn't mean he had to like it. "Yeah…"

Gwen was entering the Hub, when Jack put on his coat and pulled her back to the exit. "Come on, Gwen, road trip."

Gwen was unable to protest as her arm was nearly pulled out of its socket.

***

Two hours later Jack and Gwen returned.

If the Doctor had been able he would have paced the room, but now he was sitting on the sofa –helped over there by Mickey- and had started a sulking session. He hated being helpless, he hated that he couldn't run off and find and rescue Martha.

He wanted her back, desperately. He wanted to look up and see her there. Only now, did he realise how deep Martha Jones had climbed into his hearts.

"Anything?" he asked Jack.

"The house was derelict, only held together with the wall paper," Jack said, shrugging his coat off and tossing it into a corner.

He sat down at a station and buried his face in his hands. "The van was the only lead we had, and that was a dead end."

The statement hung in the air. Everybody was silent. Suddenly there was the distinct sound of fabrics moving. Everybody turned to see Ianto pick Jack's coat of the ground and dusting it off.

"What…?" he said, shrugging, and left.

"Okay," Jack said. "The point still stands, we're at a dead end."

"Not necessarily," the Doctor said. "I think I can track her down with the Tardis…Jack, give me a hand?"

Jack helped the Doctor to his feet, and together made their way to the ship that stood patiently waiting in a corner of the Hub. In the middle of the night, the Doctor had moved her inside.

"But if you think that you can track Martha with the Tardis, then why didn't you just do this immediately?" Jack asked.

"Because I was putting all my hopes on the fact that we had that license plate number. I was hoping that that would lead us straight to Martha," the Doctor confessed.

He moved to the scanner screen and pulled it a little closer.

"So…?" Jack asked, not completing the question.

"The Tardis knows Martha really well, she knows Martha brain pattern, for lack of a better word. I can program her, and with my telepathic abilities in the mix, we can work together in finding her."

"Right, and once you find her… what? You go in, all guns blazing?" Jack asked. "You're still in no shape to go anywhere. It took us several minutes just to cross the Hub!"

"Let's concentrate on trying to locate her position first, shall we?" the Doctor said.

The Doctor went into full 'Doctor-mode'. With his glasses pushed firmly on his nose, he started twiddling dials, and inputting complex calculations into the computer. When something didn't go his way, he started muttering under his breath and pushed his hands through his hair, making it stick out even more than usual, and at one point he picked up his mallet, and gave the console a hefty whack.

Suddenly, he stood stock still, and closed his eyes. The hum that the Tardis was producing in the background became more pronounced for a few moments, then it settled back into her usual sound.

The Doctor opened his eyes and pushed a button on the console.

"Come on, come on, come on, my beautiful girl. Find her…" he muttered.

There was a beep on the console and the image on the scanner screen changed to a map of Wales. It started zooming in on the general area of Cardiff and further in and in, until it settled on a piece of land in the middle of nowhere.

"Jack? Know where this is?" the Doctor asked.

"Yep, I do," Jack said with a smile.

"Brilliant, let's go."

The Doctor literary hobbled out of the Tardis.

As he was still hobbling over to the cogwheel, Jack had already overtaken him, and held his hand out.

"Doctor, for the last time. You are in no shape to go after Martha. We will go and get her," Jack insisted.

"Jack, I need to go and help her!" the Doctor yelled.

"Doctor, you can't. Answer me this, how long has it taken you to leave the Tardis, and cross the Hub all the way to this point?"

"Four minutes," the Doctor conceded.

"Which is three minutes and thirty seconds to long, and you know it," Jack said, the regret was lining his voice. "We…" he indicated Gwen, Ianto and Mickey, "…will go and pull Martha out. We'll stay in constant contact with each other, so you will know exactly what is going on."

Very reluctantly, the Doctor agreed, because he knew deep down, that Jack was right. So, only ten minutes later he was sat behind Mickey's computer –why did he spend so much of his time behind that thing?- and was listening to Jack and his team trying to rescue to woman he loved.

*****

Two weeks after Martha's kidnap

Martha was hunched over the toilet bowl, throwing up when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and a glass of water came into view.

Martha accepted the glass and took a few sips, and a hand came into view and relieved her from the glass.

Martha turned and saw Lisa. The young girl helped her up and they made their way over to the bed. Lisa helped Martha lay down.

"Still morning sickness?" Lisa asked.

Martha nodded. "Yeah, I've got a feeling that it will be the whole nine months."

"Well, I've put a cup of tea on the dresser for you. I'll be back to bring your dinner in an hour."

Lisa made her way to the door and knocked on it. The door was opened and she left.

Martha lay on her back for several more minutes, until the nausea faded.

So far, and she had been locked in this room for two weeks now, she had only seen Lisa. The two men who had kidnapped her, she had only seen twice. The first time had been when she'd been told that the reason for her kidnapping was the fact that they wanted to raise her baby for revenge for the Master.

The second time was only a day later. One of the two men had come into her room, armed with an impressive looking gun, and he had locked her in the bathroom.

For almost half an hour there had been a lot of gun fire, and some of it had come pretty close. Martha had instinctively known it was the Doctor, along with Jack, Gwen, Ianto and Mickey.

She had banged on the door until her hands were red and throbbing with pain; she had screamed for them until her throat was hoarse. But they hadn't come.

Martha didn't know why they had been forced to abandon her here again. And for a few hours she had been scared out of her wits; what if something had happened to them. The men who had locked her in here still hadn't unlocked the door, and for a while she had really been scared that she wouldn't be let out again, because they were all dead and the Doctor hadn't been able to find her here. But she had soon pushed those thoughts away, because Jack would always come back to life and get her out.

After three hours, Lisa had unlocked the door, and had told her that three men and one woman had broken in and had started shooting without provocation.

Martha knew this to be untrue, the Doctor would never have allowed it. And there was the thing that because of the Doctor, Torchwood now only used non-lethal weapons in self defence.

Lisa hadn't been able to tell her what exactly had happened, because she had already gone home. But she did know that, and at that point Martha had become really scared, at least one of the people who come for Martha had been seriously injured.

Martha had hated herself for thinking it, but she hoped that it was Jack. If Jack died from the injuries that he had sustained, he would simply come back to life. The Doctor, Gwen, Ianto and Mickey didn't have that luxury; even if the Doctor would regenerate.

Martha soothingly rubbed her stomach.

"It's okay," she whispered. "The Doctor will come for us."

At that point Martha knew that the Doctor would indeed come for her, and that it would be in two weeks…

_to be continued_


	10. Chapter 10

Carried by Ianto and Mickey, Jack was brought into the Hub, he was dead. Ianto had a worried look on his face.

The Doctor got to his feet and hobbled towards them.

"What happened, where's Martha?" he yelled.

Gwen, who was injured as well, went to stand next to the Doctor. "That place was like a fortress, we couldn't get anywhere near where they held Martha."

"What?" the Doctor exclaimed. "Well…what happened?"

"What do you mean?" Gwen asked. "You were on the radio link with us!"

"It cut out when I heard a high pitched noise," the Doctor explained. "I've been sitting here for four hours being worried out of my mind. I had to rely on Rhys to make the tea, and keep me company."

He pointed towards the kitchen area, where Gwen could hear the distinct sound of china clattering, and the whistle of a kettle; which Ianto preferred.

Gwen made her way towards the kitchen and saw her husband making more tea. "Rhys, what are you doing here?"

He turned. "I was coming to pick you up, remember? We're supposed to be at my mum and dad's?"

Gwen pulled a face; yeah, they were.

"Sorry, I know. But it's been a bit hectic here, with the Doctor getting shot and Martha being kidnapped…"

Rhys nodded; with his wife working very odd hours for Torchwood, he was kind of getting used to this.

"What happened to you?" he asked, rushing over to her, he hovered his hand over her shoulder.

Gwen glanced down at her shoulder. "Oh yeah, that… I got shot…"

"What…!" Rhys exclaimed. "Is Jack responsible for this?" He made his way towards the central area of the Hub.

Gwen stopped him. "Rhys… let it go… it's just a graze, I'll be fine." She sighed. "We had to leave Martha behind…"

He gave her a hug, and waved her off. "Go… go and find a way to safe Martha, I'll come in with the tea in a minute."

Gwen left the kitchen and had only just missed Jack coming back to life. There was still a blood stain on his shirt where a bullet had penetrated his abdomen.

"What's next?" Gwen asked, pulling a first aid kit from underneath her work station.

"First I want to know what happened this time, before we start thinking about the next rescue attempt," the Doctor interjected.

"Well…" Jack started

_Jack led his team towards the big mansion. _

_There were several windows illumininated, and three huge stadium lights shone bright over the lawn, making a covert attempt to reach the mansion virtually impossible. _

_Jack pressed the tiny device in his ear._

_"Doctor, you there?" he whispered._

_"Yeah," the Doctor said. _

_"Okay," Jack said. "We'll keep the lines open at all times, so that you can listen in. Right, Gwen, Mickey, try and reach that door on the right side of the house. Ianto, you're with me… we'll go and try those windows on the left."_

_Both duo's made a wide arc towards their goal, staying as close to the perimeter of the grounds as they could, to avoid the lights, __before they made a mad dash towards the door and the window._

_"Jack, we're at the door," Mickey told him. _

_"Good, Ianto and I are at the window. There are probably tight security and motion sensors and what not, so we'll go in as one and hope that we can stay undetected for as long as possible."_

_Next to him, Ianto checked his weapon one last time and nodded. _

_"Right, everybody ready?"Jack asked._

_Four confirmations came in his direction. Jack allowed himself a small smile when he realised that the Doctor had said 'yes' as well. He could understand the Time Lords feeling of hopelessness, he knew that the Doctor wanted nothing more than to be with there with them and leading them into Martha's rescue. But at the moment the Doctor wasn't capable of that, it was up to Jack. _

_And he wasn't about to let the Doctor down…_

_"Three…two…one…go!"_

_With the handle of his trusted Webley, Jack smashed to window and immediately an alarm went off. At the same time, he heard another alarm go off, Gwen and Mickey had entered the mansion as well._

_Jack and Ianto climbed through the window. With a finger, Jack pressed the small buttons on his vortex manipulator._

_"Martha's… underneath us…" Jack muttered. _

_"How do you know?" Ianto asked._

_"Because I programmed that silly device to detect a double heartbeat," the Doctor's voice came over the radio. _

_"Smart," Mickey said._

_"I know," the Doctor answered._

_"She's probably in the bas…" _

_Jack was cut short, when out of nowhere he was being shot at. He dived behind a chair and saw Ianto dive behind a sofa. _

_Ianto looked at him, he was fine._

_Over the radio, Jack could hear that Gwen and Mickey were being shot at as well. Jack holstered his Webley and grabbed his tranquilizer gun. He peered over the chair and immediately ducked back down, when the man that was stationed at the door started firing at him. Jack peered around the chair and took careful aim towards the door. The second the man came looked into the room, jack fired and the little tranquilizer dart buried itself into the men's neck; he went down like a sack of potatoes._

_Out of nowhere there was a eardrums shattering tone and both Jack and Ianto tore the radio ear pieces out of their ear. _

_"What the hell was that?" Ianto said, wincing in pain._

_"No idea…" Jack answered. "I'll tell you one thing though… the Doctor isn't going to like this! He can't listen in now."_

_"Let's find Martha," Ianto offered. "That will calm him down."_

_Jack gave him a wry smile. Ianto was right. Martha had a very calming effect on the Time Lord. They had visited on a regular basis, and Jack had seen the change in him. _

_"There's nothing we can do about the loss of the radio, let's just keep moving," Jack said._

_The two men made their way to the door and carefully looked what lay behind it. They found a long corridor and slowly made their way through it; checking every door. One door he could open and as a looked he could make out a stairs that were going down._

_"Bingo" he thought_

_Jack heard a noise behind him and motioned Ianto to stop. Raising his gun, and keeping a firm grip on it, Jack whirled around and almost shot Mickey, who was wearing a very startled expression. Jack sighed with relieve. _

_Mickey pointed towards the door behind which the stairs down were. Jack nodded. Gwen and Ianto approached as well and the four of them went down the stairs. _

_Jack had only reached the bottom step when several shots impacted the wall next to him. He dove behind it and cautiously peered around the corner. Three men, all heavily armed, were half way into a long corridor. _

_Silence hung in the corridor. _

_"Hand over Martha Jones, and we all will walk away alive," Jack shouted. _

_The only response he got was another bullet in the wall, just beside his head. _

_"Guess that means 'no'…" Jack muttered._

_"What do we do?" Gwen asked. "We can't just charge them."_

_Jack looked at her, with an evil glint in his eye. "I'll go first," he said. Jack ran out, his tranquilizer gun held in front of him. His first shot missed. One of the men shot back, only with real bullets._

_Jack started when he heard a grunt of pain behind him. The grunt sounded female, Jack turned and saw Gwen go down. Ianto was already crouched down beside her, but Gwen pushed him away, muttering things like, 'just a graze', and 'find Martha'. _

_The three men down the corridor had now really opened fire and Jack looked back at them. He put his tranquilizer gun away and grabbed his real weapon. The Webley felt familiar in his hand, somehow the feeling of the gun made him more secure about his abilities and his confidence grew. _

_Boldly, he stepped into the corridor and stood in the middle. "Final chance; give me Martha Jones, or I will not be responsible for anything that happens here."_

_One of the men stepped into corridor, his machine gun was pointing to the ground, as if he thought that Jack was no threat to him what so ever. _

_"My Master will have his ultimate revenge and Martha Milligan will provide it," the man said smugly._

_"The Master…" Jack muttered. He swallowed and pushed all feelings of concern about Martha away, but just for a moment. "The Master is dead, he no longer has any control over our lives. Your buddy Tom is in prison on another planet and in another time frame, with no means of escape. So with what kind of revenge could you possibly use Martha for?"_

_The man smiled, and pointed the gun towards Jack. "IT's baby…" he said and opened fire._

_Jack ducked out of the way, but not in time… he felt the bullet enter his abdomen. He felt something tear and a searing hot pain went through him. He looked down and saw black blood; that was bad, that meant that his spleen had been punctured. He knew that he was dying. He just had to hold on long enough to find Martha and get her out._

_Jack had thought wrong, Ianto appeared behind him and started to drag him backwards. _

_"No, Ianto… let me go, I have to find Martha…" he screamed. _

_"Jack, think… we are not getting anywhere near her… and we are no good to her if we're all dead…" Ianto replied._

_"I'll just come back to life…" Jack said._

_"But we won't," Ianto pleaded._

_Damn, Jack thought, why does he have to sound so… right._

_Jack glanced through the corridor where the three men now just pointed the guns to the ground, knowing that Torchwood was beaten._

_Ianto helped Jack up; while a few metres away, Mickey helped Gwen to her feet._

_With his arm around Ianto's shoulders, Jack glared down the corridor. It killed him to have to leave Martha behind. But Jack knew as well that if what that man had said was correct, they wanted Martha's baby, that meant that for now Martha was safe. _

_For the next three months she was safe…_

_"Without sounding pretentious and all cliché; I will be back, and when I do, the Doctor will be here as well, and I will enjoy watching whatever he wants to do to you for taking Martha away from us…"_

_Jack let go of Ianto and walked away unaided…_

"… and that is what happened," Jack concluded. "We just walked out, got in the SUV and drove back, and in the car I died."

"You just walked out…" the Doctor muttered angrily, "… you just walked out and left Martha with the maniacs that want her baby, so that they can have revenge on me for the Master's sake."

Jack held out his hands defensively, "Doctor, I don't like it any more then you, but at the time it was the only thing that we could do to get out alive and make sure that we could go back at a later time to get her out."

The Doctor sighed. He knew that Jack was right.

He also knew that he would get Martha back… and he would enjoy his personal revenge on the people that took her away from him.

_to be continued_

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**AN: I'm not entirely sure if the fact that Jack's spleen was damaged would cause him to bleed black blood. I know that there's something, but my medical knowledge isn't that well.**

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, and I hope that you will continue to do so. Updates may become less frequent, because over the next few weeks I'm going to busy as hell at work. I am already, BTW. See you soon.**


	11. Chapter 11

Lisa came into room with a tray , on it was a plate with Martha's dinner and a glass with orange juice.

"Hello, Martha," Lisa said.

Martha said nothing, she just sat in the chair and starred ahead into nothing.

"Martha…?" Lisa prompted. "Are you alright?"

Martha looked up into the young girls eyes. "Let me go," she whispered.

"That is not up to me," Lisa said, averting her eyes.

"Then bring me the person that can make that decision," Martha said.

"I can't do that either," Lisa whispered.

"Then what good are you?" Martha said to her, menace in her voice. She had been here for three weeks, and all she had seen was this room and Lisa. She was getting sick and tired of this. "What good are you, if the only thing you can do is bring me food and drinks. What exactly do you do in the grand scheme of things. Who exactly are you? Why do you work for these men, when you know exactly why I'm held here. You know they want my baby. Why do you help them? Do you work for the Master as well? Tell me!"

Martha had risen from the chair and started to advance on Lisa. The girl backed away from her, almost if fear. Martha knew that she would never hurt her, she wasn't capable of that, but the girl didn't know that.

"I…" Lisa started.

"Well…" Martha demanded.

"I'm just helping my father," Lisa said in a rush.

"Your father? He used to work for the Master?" Martha asked in a more placid tone.

Lisa nodded. "Yes, I think that he still works for our Master."

Martha hated the fact that Lisa had said 'our Master', but didn't comment on it. Instead, Martha asked a question that had been bugging her for three weeks. "Do you remember…?" she asked in a tone that left nothing up to the imagination of what Lisa maybe remembered.

Startled, Lisa looked her in the eye. "Yes…" she whispered.

Martha nodded. "You were on board the Valiant?"

Lisa nodded, but remained silent. "If you remember…" Martha started, "… then why do you keep me prisoner here?"

Lisa shrugged. "All I know is that…" Lisa faltered.

"All you know is what…? That they want my baby, so that they can raise to hate the Doctor? I already know that."

"My father doesn't just want your baby to raise to hate IT… he wants your baby because…"

Martha leaned forward, eager to know that last bit of information. She knew that there was more than just the fact that they wanted her baby. There had to be…

Lisa never could finish her sentence, because the door was opened and a man entered. Lisa bowed her head and made her way towards him.

"I thought I told you to just bring Doctor Milligan her food and then leave…" he said menacingly.

"Yes, Father," Lisa muttered and left.

Martha stared at the man in front of her. He was tall and muscular; and he seemed familiar.

"I know you," Martha said.

"I hope so," the man replied.

Martha looked at him, and took a step back as she recognized him. "It's you… you were there… you were the one who took me to the Valiant when the Master found me."

The man smiled at her. "The one and the same…"

Martha shook her head. "How could you do this? If you know what the Master did to us, how can still do his bidding? He's dead!"

The man smiled. "No… he isn't."

The man turned and left the room.

Martha stood rooted to the spot. What the man had said, was impossible. The Master was dead, she had seen it, she had seen him die; and she stood on the hill looking at the scene when the Doctor had burned his remains.

He was dead. Martha was sure of it.

But what if the man was right?

Several hours later the man returned. "I think that I owe you an explanation."

"Ya think?" Martha said incredulously.

"My Master was saved from the fire that burned his body by his wife Lucy. Unfortunately she passed away from cancer before she could witness her husband's return. We knew that Tom had married you and kept you away from IT as much as possible. But we never anticipated the fact that Tom would hit you and that you would once again leave with IT."

"Okay, may I interrupt for just a second?" Martha said. "Stop calling the Doctor IT. If it wasn't for him we would still be living in hell."

But the man continued as if Martha hadn't spoken. "Mrs. Saxon gave her husband's ring to us before she died, and told her that our Master's soul was inside it. She knew that one day IT and you would… have at it. Your baby will be our Master's new body. Of course, we will wait a few years until the child's mind is mature enough to cope with our Master's brilliance. But our Master will be back, and his empire will rise."

*****

After three days, the Doctor had calmed down enough to realise that Jack had been right. If they hadn't left, they would have all been killed and then the chances of rescuing Martha would become even more slim.

On the plus side, they now knew exactly where Martha was. The only down side was that there was no way into the mansion. After their failed rescue attempt, they had been keeping an eye on the place, and security had seriously tightened. There was no way they could get in to get Martha out, without people being seriously injured, or worse still, dying.

It was three weeks later, with a now fully healed leg, when the Doctor had worked out everything that could go wrong with his plan, and had thought of solutions. As plans go, it was one more of his stupid ones; it needed an extraordinary amount of luck, and there was the small detail of getting the one person the Doctor could trust to go along with this plan.

When he had explained it to Team Torchwood, all of them had been shocked. Mickey and Gwen from its sheer brilliance, Ianto had this doubts if it could work and Jack… well Jack had been very quiet.

"What is it, Jack?" the Doctor asked.

"Well, it is one of your most… whacky… plans that you've come up with…" Jack said.

"Whacky?" Gwen said with a smile.

Jack gave her a smile, that said 'what', and sighed.

"Jack," the Doctor started. "There's something you're not telling me."

Jack sighed again, which was totally out of character for him. "There _is_ something that I haven't told you, Doctor." Jack looked up and stared the Time Lord in the eye. "But I can't tell you."

"Why not?" the Doctor asked, sounding a bit more harsh then he had intended.

"Paradox…" Jack whispered, looking at the Doctor pleadingly.

"You knew…" the Doctor muttered. "You knew that Martha would be kidnapped, you knew why and you never mentioned anything? How could you? Paradoxes be damned!"

"Doctor, the only thing I knew was that Martha would be kidnapped, that is it."

"How did you know?" the Doctor asked through squinted eyes.

"I can't tell you… not yet, but I can tell you that your plan will work," Jack said with a smirk.

_to be continued_

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**AN: What is the Doctor's plan? Why does Jack know that it will work? Find out later.**

**Reviews make me happy and will make me update sooner.**


	12. Chapter 12

**I know that it gets a bit confusing now, if you don't get it, PM me and I'll try and explain. Enjoy!**Four weeks after her kidnap, two hours before her rescue

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Martha was lying flat on her back on the bed, when the door opened and Lisa and her father entered. Since a week, Lisa never visited Martha alone. The young girl was always accompanied by her father or some other man that Martha didn't know. The only name she had ever learned was Lisa's.

Lisa rushed forward, when she noticed that Martha didn't acknowledge them. "Martha, what is wrong?"

"I fell… tripped over the rug…" Martha said through gritted teeth.

Lisa hands hovered over Martha's belly. "Are you okay… is the baby?"

"Yeah, because that's what's important isn't it? My baby?" Martha said, menace underlining her voice. "I think my water broke…" Martha looked at a puddle of water on the rug, which was lying on the floor.

Lisa gasped in shock. "Are you in labour? Are you having contractions?"

Martha shook her head. "No, not yet, but I can't feel the baby anymore." She looked up at Lisa's father, a pleading look in her eyes. "I have to go to hospital."

"No," the man firmly stated. "Not going to happen."

"This baby needs medical attention, and I don't think that you're a doctor," Martha said.

The man stood his ground.

"Then get me some medical equipment, and I can check myself," Martha implored. "Please, I just want my baby to be okay, it's all I want."

The man still stood his ground, but Martha could see that was beginning to have doubts. He nodded and left the room.

For the next two hours, Lisa didn't leave her side. She mopped Martha's brow and gave her water, when Martha asked.

Both women looked at the door when it opened. Lisa's father came in, and waved a hand in Martha's general direction.

"That's her, see what you can do for her, Doc, and hurry up," the man said, with an air of indifference.

Which seemed a bit odd to Martha, because the sole reason she was here was her baby, and that little life was now in jeopardy.

"Can I just say that I'm not happy! You kidnap me from the hospital, drive me cross country and tell me to see what I can do?" A voice that Martha recognized said.

_It couldn't be._

Her ears were playing tricks on her.

The door was pushed open further and the doctor that was kidnapped from a hospital was pushed into the room.

Martha had been right… it was the Ninth Doctor.

***

The Tardis was bouncing around in the time vortex, the time winds battering the outside shell. Inside the Ninth Doctor and Rose were in the console room. The Doctor was lying flat on his back underneath the console, busy repairing the damage to the console. Rose was sitting on the chair, looking bored.

"How's it coming?" she asked.

The Doctor only grunted in reply. There were a few systems that were causing him some serious head ache and he even found a few faults in systems that weren't affected in the blast.

The Tardis gave him a hum, she sounded better than before, but she still sounded sick.

_'It's alright'_ he thought. _'I'm going to fix you and in no time you'll be as good as new.'_

The Tardis gave him another hum, and he felt that she wasn't worried.

After several hours, the Doctor looked up to the chair and found Rose to be gone. He laid back again. It had taken him longer to repair the Tardis then he'd ever needed, because his mind kept wandering back to his next incarnation and his companion.

When they had been linked with the Guardian, he had seen everything that was going to happen in the next few years. Meeting Jack for the first time, his regeneration, loosing Rose, meeting Donna and then Martha. He remembered how his next incarnation had treated the young doctor when they had first met, and he couldn't believe that Martha still trusted him after everything that he had put her through.

And he remembered the Master…

His worst enemy –and his best friend- had survived the Time War. What would happen if flew the Tardis to the end of the universe? Would he find professor Yana there? Would that stop the Year That Never Was from happening?

He pushed those thoughts aside. The time lines had to play out in the way that they were meant to.

The Doctor felt his next incarnations pride when he had seen Martha again. She had grown so much –not in size, she was as petite as ever- no, she had grown as a person and was now a strong person, who could face anything the universe threw at her.

Tom had almost broken her, but he had come to her just in time to help her, and now when he looked at her, he felt lighter somehow.

It pained him to have to erase his memory of these events. There were so many little things that he wanted to remember and one of them was the simple feel of Martha's hand in his.

He lifted his hand and looked at it. Martha hadn't held this hand, still he remembered the way it felt; warm and safe. He knew that he could tell her anything and that she wouldn't ever tell another soul.

He was pulled from his musings when there was a distinct beeping sound coming from the console.

He quickly got to his feet and peered at the scanner screen. He blinked in surprise.

He heard a screech from the corridor behind him when the Tardis lurched violently for a moment, because he had pulled the handbrake.

"What was that all about?" Rose had appeared beside him.

"There's a signal, a very, very specific signal coming our way," the Doctor answered. "I'm only tracking it back to its original source."

"Who send it?" Rose asked. "I mean, it's the second one in about twelve hours."

The Doctor gave her a grin. "I send it. I'm the only one who could send it."

"What are you talking about, you send it… oh… the other you send it. Why?" Rose said.

"I don't know, let's find out," the Doctor said, and ran around the console sending the Tardis back to Earth.

***

The Tenth Doctor stood at the console of his own Tardis, his sonic screwdriver in his hand. He twiddled a few dials on the console and seemed pleased with the readings on the scanner screen.

"Mickey, there's a gage on that side of the console, what does it say?" the Doctor asked.

Mickey made his way to the console and read it out to him.

The Doctor nodded. "Good, brilliant in fact, now stand back."

Mickey retreated to what he hoped was a safe distance.

The Doctor took a few steps back from the console as well.

_'I'm sorry girl,' _he thought. '_I know that this is not going to be pleasant, but will you allow me to do this? For Martha?'_

The Tardis hummed more pronounced and the Doctor knew instinctively that the Tardis cared just as much about Martha as he did, and was willing to do this.

The Doctor focused all of his mind on his memories of his previous self. At the time he didn't like the 'model', he was to angry with the universe, to filled with the memories of the war, but now when he looked back on it, he was okay with it. At that point in time it was what he needed to heal. Rose had helped, but sometimes he couldn't help but think –especially now when he had discovered that he loved her- that Martha would have helped him more.

The Doctor thought back and felt somewhere deep down in his mind, his Ninth self presence. He focused on the memory and with his sonic screwdriver activated something on the console.

The Tardis groaned and screeched on the onslaught of what was asked of her, as she opened a small pocket of time and space and broadcast a signal that would call the Ninth Doctor for his help. Sparks flew from the console as she attempted to make the opening just a little bit bigger.

The Tardis gave a last anguished hum and fell silent, when simultaneously all the lights in the console room went out.

The Doctor took a step back, and slumped down on the console chair; he was utterly exhausted.

He looked over at the people huddled together in the door, backlit by the Hub's lights; he gave them all a smile.

"Now we wait," he said. "If he heard it… he will come."

"What if he didn't hear it?" Jack asked.

"I will," the Doctor said with the upmost confidence.

They had to wait for almost a week, when the ancient engines of the Tardis reverberated through the Hub. All of them were roused from musings and boredom.

The Ninth Doctor came from the Tardis with a mix of a bemused and confused expression on his face.

"What is wrong?" he asked.

"I need your help," the Tenth Doctor said. "I need you to go and save Martha Jones."

"Why?" Nine asked.

"Martha was taken four weeks ago," Ten said.

"Why did you wait for four weeks to call for my help?" Nine exclaimed.

"Because," Jack said, "I saw Martha Jones five weeks ago, being more pregnant then she was the last time I saw her, and she was with you, we had no choice but to wait."

"What…!" the Ninth Doctor and Tenth Doctor exclaimed at the exact same time.

Jack took a deep breath. "About five weeks ago, the Tardis landed on the Plass. I just thought it was you," Jack pointed to the Tenth Doctor, "but then… out came Martha looking about seven months pregnant, along with him." Jack pointed to the Ninth Doctor. "She told me, that I'd given her a note that said that she had to find a way to get a doctor in, today, in roughly two hours. Because she said that the Ninth Doctor came and got her."

The Tenth Doctor advanced on his immortal friend. "You knew… you knew all along and you didn't tell me, that you knew that Martha would be kidnapped."

"I'm sorry, Doctor, I really am. All I knew was what Martha told me, and the Ninth Doctor insisted that I could only tell you what I just have done."

"So…" the Doctor said tentatively, hope lining his voice, "…Martha is alright?"

"Yes, Doctor. It killed me to see you in the state you were in, to see you miss her so much, but I had to preserve the time lines."

Jack looked pleadingly at his friend, the Doctor said nothing and took the last step forwards and hugged him.

"When did you give her the note?" Nine asked.

"I slipped it in her back pocket when we said goodbye, several minutes before she was taken," Jack answered.

"What had you written on it?" Ten asked.

"_Martha, make sure that you get a Doctor in, in exactly four weeks from today at 7PM_," Jack answered. "I made sure that the name Doctor was with a capital letter so she would know the plan."

"Do we even know why she was taken?" Rose piped up.

Everyone had ignored her and had focused on Martha, so several people started when she spoke.

Jack sighed. "The Master…" he muttered.

Involuntary, the Ninth Doctor took a step back. "Why…?" he whispered.

"They want to take her baby and raise it to hate you," Jack answered. "But Martha discovered something else."

"No, I mean, why does it always have to be him," Nine said.

The Tenth Doctor shrugged. "Why do the Daleks always come back? It's the universe at its most elusive." He turned to Jack. "What else did Martha discover?"

Jack sighed. "Well, they don't just want to raise this child, when it's old enough, they want to make sure that the Master gets his grubby paws on it and uses it as a vessel to survive."

"The Master is dead, I've burned his remains," Ten stated.

"Lucy pulled the ring from the ashes and made sure that it is now in close proximity to Martha, to make sure that the Master could enter the child's body once it is old enough to cope with the Master's presence."

The Tenth Doctor gave a snort of laughter. "Let me get this straight. These people kidnap Martha, wait until she gives birth, and thinking that the baby is half Time Lord, want to give the body to the Master. Well… that is some plan. Has one little flaw though…"

Everybody looked at him a little bemused. The Doctor smiled at the assembled group. "Martha is expecting a girl."

"Really?" several voices said at once.

"Yeah, I did a scan to see if everything was alright and we could see," the Doctor explained. "Anyway, moving on. Jack, did Martha tell you how he managed to get her out?" the Doctor pointed to the Ninth Doctor.

"No, all I know is that about now, Martha is doing something that is going to cause for them to call professional medical help," Jack said.

"Most logical place would be that they kidnap me from the hospital," Nine said. He clasped his hands together. "What are we waiting for?"

_to be continued_

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**AN: Next chapter is coming soon. **

**The Ninth Doctor to the rescue!**


	13. Chapter 13

Only one hour later, the Ninth Doctor sat in clothes he'd borrowed from Jack in the hospital cafeteria, a cup of coffee in front of him.

He wiggled on the seat, the clothes were a little too tight for him. He could've found something to wear in the Tardis, but this had been quicker. He had protested a little when Jack had explained to him that he couldn't wear his own clothes, but Jack had been adamant. He had recognized his own shirt.

Torchwood knew exactly where Martha was being held and had figured that they would grab a doctor from the nearest hospital. So he was here waiting for the cue from Gwen and Mickey, to go outside. Gwen and Mickey were outside the mansion and would text him the second that they would leave, so he could be outside the hospital in precisely the right moment.

The mobile in his pocket –Rose's mobile to be precise- bleeped, it was a text from Gwen. A van had just left the mansion and was clearly taking a direct route towards the correct hospital. The Doctor pocketed the mobile and waited for the second text, that would indicate that he should get going.

The Doctor still couldn't believe that he was doing this. Not that he was scared, he was hardly ever scared, but he found that the whole situation a bit strange. He was going to rescue a future companion that his next incarnation loved. He still hadn't erased the memories that were not exactly his, and he felt that he was a bit reluctant to. It felt like he was about to go and rescue his own companion, he had every single memory of his next self of her.

And he had discovered that she was brilliant. Not only was she smart, she was a doctor after all, but she was brave, compassionate, took a lot of things in her stride and seemed to genuinely care for him too.

The mobile beeped again. Without looking at it, the Doctor got up and grabbed the bag that was underneath his chair, along with the white coat –to make his whole look scream a bit more 'doctor'- and strode from the cafeteria. He made his way to the elevator where he did check the mobile. It was another text from Gwen, they were only a few minutes away.

The elevator went down the one floor the Doctor needed to go –he had discovered it would have been faster to take the stairs- and the Doctor made his way to the exit. Just in time to see the promised van almost stopped in front of his nose.

'_Impeccable timing, as always'_, he thought.

A man in a ski mask threw the sliding door open and jumped out. "You a doctor?" he asked in a gruff tone of voice.

The Doctor could tell that the man was used to talk differently and was attempting to change the sound of voice. He nodded and said, 'Yes." The Doctor was pleased that it came out a bit scared, bemused and bold.

He was grabbed, and for the form he struggled a bit, while saying things like, 'what the blazes is going on here', 'get your grubby hands off me', and 'what the hell do you think you're doing'.

He was stuffed in the back of the van, the sliding door was closed and the van tore off with screeching tires.

'_Hang on Martha, I'm on my way', _he thought.

About thirty minutes later, the Doctor could hear that the van was now driving along a pebble road and soon the van stopped. The drive had been silent, he had pretended to be scared out of his wits, because there was a gun being pointed at him.

When the van stopped and the sliding door was opened the Doctor asked in a pleading tone, "What is going on? Where am I? Why am I here?"

He was marched down a corridor, a stairs and down another corridor.

"My girlfriend is pregnant and tripped over a rug, she's scared to go out on the street, so we decided to bring you here. That's her, see what you can do for her, Doc, and hurry up," the man said.

"Can I just say that I'm not happy. You kidnap me from the hospital, drive me cross country and tell me to see what I can do?" the Doctor asked indignantly.

He was shoved into the room and immediately noticed Martha lying on the bed. She was on her side, her arms protectively around her stomach. Behind her sat a young girl with brown hair. He saw in her eyes that she had recognized his voice before he had even entered the room, but he knew that Martha would never give him away.

Which she didn't.

Gently, he approached her. "Hello, I'm Doctor Noble," he said.

Martha nodded a greeting, but remained silent.

"Would you like to tell me what happened?" he asked in a gentle tone.

"I tripped over the rug, and then my water broke," Martha said.

The Doctor nodded. "Are you have contractions?" he asked, keeping up the act.

Martha shook her head. "No, not yet, but it does hurt."

The Doctor continued to nod, it was time for the part of the plan that he had no control over. "Right, gentlemen, miss, if you could leave the room, please? I would like to check if… I didn't catch your name?" the Doctor said as he addressed Martha.

"Martha Jones," Martha said. The Doctor saw that she quickly glanced behind him.

"Miss Jon…" the Doctor started.

"Doctor," Martha corrected him.

"Doctor Martha Jones, nice to meet you. Now, gentlemen, some privacy please?" the Doctor turned to them expectantly.

When they didn't comply, the Doctor added, "you can lock the door behind you. We can't get out. This woman is now my patient, I need to examine her and she deserves a little privacy."

The Doctor was pleased that it came out all right. He was just making it up as he went, but he and Martha had to be alone for the plan to work.

The girl behind Martha nodded and made her way to the door, where the man who had done all the talking was still standing.

"Look," the Doctor said, "what's the problem? We can't get out if you lock the door."

The man didn't respond, he simply took Lisa by the arm and left; locking the door.

The Doctor turned to Martha. "Hello, Martha Jones."

Martha gave him a smile and sat up without a problem. She got to her feet and walked into the Doctor's waiting arms. Martha let out a sigh and the Doctor suddenly realised that she was crying. He gently picked her up and laid her back on the bed.

"It's okay, Martha," he said. "I'm here."

"I knew you would come," Martha whispered. "I just didn't expect it to be… _you_, you know?"

Martha rolled onto her side, but didn't let go of the Doctor's hand. "I know what you mean," the Doctor said.

He continued in a more serious tone, "Are you okay? You and your little girl?"

Martha nodded, and gazed at the little puddle on the floor. "Yeah, we're both fine."

The Doctor gazed at the puddle too. "How many glasses?" he asked.

"Three," Martha answered.

_Two and a half hours earlier_

_Martha glanced at her watch. It was time._

_She took the little piece of paper from her pocket. It was folded two times, and it was getting a bit worn. She unfolded it on the table and smoothed it out. She traced the words with her finger. She didn't have to read it anymore, she knew it by heart. But she found herself reading it several times a day, it was the only link she had to her home. _

'Martha, make sure that you get a Doctor in, in exactly four weeks from today at 7PM,' _the note said. _

_Martha had no idea how the note had gotten into her pocket –she did have an idea, and she would be asking that person if she were correct- and she had no idea what the Doctor was planning, but she did understand the note._

_She knew that the Doctor was going to come for her; she knew when, exactly four weeks after the day she was taken; and she knew what time, at 7PM._

_Martha scrunched the note into a little ball and made her way to the bathroom where she flushed it down the toilet. She grabbed a glass of water and purposefully poured the content on the edge of the rug, she went back and repeated the process twice. The puddle was now large enough to fool someone who didn't know much about the fact on how much fluid there could be. _

_When she was pleased with her work, Martha laid down on the bed and waited for Lisa to come with her dinner._

Now

"So…" Martha asked. "What now?"

"Now, we get out of here!" the Doctor said.

"How…?" Martha asked. She glanced around. The door was still locked, and there were bound to be guards. So the situation hadn't changed that much, the only difference now was, that the Doctor was here.

The Doctor gave her a smile and pulled a mobile phone from his pocket. "I'm just going to send me a little text message."

He nodded and put the mobile away again. "Okay, the Tardis is on its way," the Doctor started.

Martha was thoroughly bemused and wanted to interject, but the Doctor waved her comments away. "I'll explain later. Now, come on."

The Doctor helped her to her feet again, and helped her to put on her shoes.

"Stay close to me," the Doctor said.

Out of nowhere, the Tardis materialized beside the two Doctors. Martha shot the Doctor a questioning look, but she knew that he would answer her questions later. The Doctor dug the key out of his pocket and had only just inserted it into the lock, when another door was unlocked and thrown open.

Lisa and her father were standing in the doorway.

Quick as lighting the Doctor pulled the sonic screwdriver from his pocket and turned it on. Martha started to make her way towards the safety that the Tardis could provide, but the Doctor stopped her.

"No need, Martha," he said calmly.

He gave father and daughter a bright smile. "I don't think that we've been properly introduced; I'm the Doctor," he said.

Lisa started a little, but it was her father who spoke. "No, you're not. The Doctor is skinny."

The Doctor nodded. "Yes, he is, now. But at the moment I look like this."

The man looked confused, but didn't comment.

"Now that you know who I am," the Doctor continued, "do you mind telling me who you are? I find that talking to someone who's name I know is so much more pleasant."

"John Emmerson," the man replied.

"Nice to meet you, John Emmerson," the Doctor said.

"But you're still not the Doctor," Emmerson said.

"Oh, I think you'll find that I am," the Doctor said. "I see that the Master didn't explain everything about our species to you."

"You know our Master?" Emmerson asked, sounding intrigued.

"Yes, I do," the Doctor answered. Suddenly he felt a warm hand enclose his, and he squeezed Martha's fingers, thankful for the moral support.

"Then you must understand that our Master should be able to rise again. So hand over Martha Milligan," Emmerson said.

"Okay, first; I will not hand over Martha _Jones_, and second; your Master will not rise again. He is dead, I know that, I have the memories. The Master can and will never return."

Behind Emmerson and Lisa, the second man entered.

The Doctor peered at him. "Mmm, you two look similar…" he shifted his gaze between the two men. "Are you two brothers per chance?"

The two men didn't respond with words, but they did look at each other and the Doctor knew enough. "Then you must be Brian, the derelict house owner."

Brian Emmerson shifted uncomfortably under the Doctor gaze, but still kept his mouth shut.

Merrily, the Doctor clasped his hands together, and turned to face Martha. "Doctor Jones, if you would please step this way. We're going on a very small trip and then I'll bring you home."

"Now wait a minute," John Emmerson exclaimed and rushed forward, but was stopped by an invisible wall.

The Doctor gave them a bright smile. "Didn't expect that, did ya? I borrowed a tribophysical waveform macrokinetic extrapolator. It is shielding us both, nothing can get through… including bullets," the Doctor added hastily when John Emmerson pointed a gun at them.

The Doctor turned towards Martha. "Martha, will you please go inside? I'll be with you in a minute, and then we'll be on our way."

Reluctantly, the Doctor could tell, Martha nodded and did what the Doctor asked. The Doctor reached out and pulled the door closed. He turned back towards the two Emmerson brothers and Lisa.

"My name is the Doctor," he started, cold fury clearly audible in his voice. "One day, I will look like the Doctor that you know. And on that day I know that I will not like you. You took Martha away from me, and that was a very bad move."

The Doctor looked at Lisa. "Lisa, you are young and so far you have done nothing wrong. Leave now and I will spare you. Stay, and I will not be responsible for what happens to you." Lisa only stared at him. The Doctor could tell that she knew what he meant.

The Doctor looked at the Emmerson brothers. "For you two, there will be no first chance. I'll be coming for you…" The thread hung in the air; there was no mistake in what the Doctor meant.

The Doctor turned around, opened the door to the Tardis, entered his ship and closed the door.

John Emmerson, Brian Emmerson and Lisa Emmerson stared as the little blue box slowly faded away.

Above them, a huge explosion rocked the mansion.

The Doctor was here…

_to be continued_

_

* * *

_

**AN: Next chapter is coming soon. **

**Five weeks into the past...!**


	14. Chapter 14

**I'm sorry for the really long delay between chapters. My muse flew out the window and I just couldn't write anymore...**

**But here it is: FINALLY! Enjoy**

Martha watched the Ninth Doctor come up the ramp, and start the dematerialization process. She didn't really know what to say to him. Sure he had rescued her, but what now? She remembered that they were going on a trip first, but what kind of trip? Why wasn't he just taken her home?

* * *

Thankful that she wasn't a shy person, Martha asked him. "You were mentioning a small trip? Where to?"

The Doctor looked at her. "I'll tell you in a minute, but first my successor had asked me to check on your health and your baby's. So, while I'm doing that, I'll explain everything."

Martha nodded, she was glad that he had suggested it, she wanted to know herself.

Martha followed the Doctor through several corridors, and into the Medical Bay. The Doctor lowered one of the beds and helped her on it and helped her to lay down. The Doctor brought over a small tube, not unlike his sonic screwdriver and turned it on just above her stomach. After a few moments, the little device bleeped three times, and a green light appeared.

Martha looked at him expectantly. The Doctor noticed and gave her an assuring smile.

"You're both fine," he said.

Martha nodded. "So… what's the story?"

The Doctor looked at her questioningly. "Oh, you mean… yeah. Wanna come and grab a cup of tea in the kitchen?"

Martha nodded and followed him to the kitchen. By now she desperately wanted some answers.

Martha sat down at the kitchen table and watched as the Doctor made her a cup of tea and a cup of coffee for himself.

"Milk…sugar…?" he asked.

"Two sugars, please," Martha answered. "I don't know what to ask you first, there's so much I want to know."

The Doctor gave her a smile as he sat down opposite her. "Shall I just start?"

Martha nodded, and the Doctor told her what had happened the last few hours. How the call for help had come, when he had just about finished the repairs on his Tardis, that Jack had explained what he knew.

"What?" Martha exclaimed. "How did Jack now?"

"Well, because we had come to Cardiff about a week before the events with the Guardians," the Doctor said, making it sound like the most normal thing in the world.

"So, that's where we're going?" Martha asked. "Five weeks into the past."

"Yes, now remember to not tell Jack everything, just the essentials," the Doctor implored her. "Tell him too much, and we cause a paradox; tell him too little and he might not get it, and we cause a paradox."

"Right…" Martha muttered, not with the upmost confidence.

The Doctor seemed to notice her trepidation, because he reached forward and took her hand in his. "It'll be fine," he said. "If you get it wrong, I'll correct you."

"How?" Martha asked. "I mean, if _you_ say to much…"

"I'll just nudge you in the back," the Doctor said with a smile that reminded Martha a bit too much of her Doctor. Thinking of him… "Is the Doctor alright? I mean, the Doctor that I know, but I know you too," Martha stopped babbling when the Doctor held up his hands to try and stop her talking.

"He's fine, he got shot in the leg. It was already healed when I left an hour ago."

Reassured, Martha nodded.

The Tardis gave a shudder. "We've landed in Cardiff," the Doctor said.

The Doctor took Martha's mug from her, and put it in the sink along with his own. "I'll wash up later," he said and led the way back to the console room.

The Doctor led her back to the console room, where he checked the scanner screen. He grunted in displeasure, and put his finger in the collar of the shirt he was wearing.

"What's wrong?" Martha asked with a small smile.

"Can't stand things that are tight around my neck," he answered, and resumed the tugging at the collar.

"Then why don't you change?" Martha asked him bemused.

"Paradox…" he said with smug smile.

Martha nodded, if she heard the word paradox one more time, she would explode.

"Then you must really hate the fact that your next incarnation wears a suit and tie," Martha stated with a sly smile.

The Doctor looked at her, Martha couldn't really read his expression, but what she could see was a mixture of amusement and reluctant acceptance.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Doctor, Martha?" Jack's voice sounded a bit muffled because he was still outside.

Martha looked at the Doctor. "Showtime?" she asked.

The Doctor nodded. "Showtime."

Martha made her way to the door and opened it. "Hey, Jack! How've you been?" she said cheerfully.

Jack gave her one of his heart stopping grins, but his smile vanished when the Ninth Doctor appeared behind her.

"Captain…" the Doctor said, with a small smirk.

Jack looked at both of them in utter bewilderment. He opened his mouth, but no sound came from his lips. Realizing he looked like an idiot, Jack closed his mouth. Then he muttered a dazed sounding, "What?"

"Breath, Jack," Martha said with smile. "It's alright. We can explain."

"Please do," a still very dazed sounding Jack said.

So they explained, about Martha's kidnap, the note that he had given her; everything.

Jack was amazed by their story, but promised to keep the information to himself until the time was right.

An hour after the Doctor and Martha had arrived, they took their leave.

Martha did however have one last message for him.

"Jack, in about a week, you're going to need our help with something," Martha started.

Jack nodded. "When you contact us, don't call me on my mobile, or the Doctor's… send a signal…"

Martha looked at him pointedly. Jack nodded again, he had no idea what Martha was on about, but if she wanted him to send a signal instead of calling them, he would do that.

The Doctor and Martha went back into the Tardis.

Inside Martha sat down on the chair beside the console and watched as the Doctor input the coordinates to her proper place in time.

"Do you think Jack understood?" Martha asked the Doctor.

"We're still here, if he didn't understand I would know," the Doctor answered enigmatically.

"Your super Time Lord senses? Right?" Martha asked with a smile.

The Doctor looked amused, but didn't comment.

Martha started fidgeting, and the Doctor came over and took her shaking hands in his own.

"We'll be there shortly," he reassured her.

Martha gave his hands a squeeze. "I know… it's just that I'm a bit nervous to see you again, the next you I mean."

The Doctor looked at her in bemusement. "I don't understand," he said. "I mean, you know me. I don't know you all that well, yet. But I for one can't wait to meet you properly."

"Yes, you can," Martha muttered.

She had said it very quietly, but the Doctor had still heard her. He sighed, and sat down beside her.

"Martha, I know that I will have to say goodbye to Rose, before I meet you," he said. "But you have to understand that happens a lot in my life. I meet new people and say goodbye to them all the time. Rose means a lot to me, and I'll do a lot to keep her save. But I know as well that I won't be able to do that forever. And I can only hope that Rose knows that to. One day I'll have to say goodbye to her…"

Martha listened to him and desperately wanted to tell him the truth; that when they met he hadn't been able to let Rose go and walked over her feelings all the time, that he was always going to compare her to Rose. But then she remembered their kiss, that kiss they had shared after the Doctor had woken her up from her nightmare. He had kissed her, and Martha knew deep down that he hadn't been thinking about Rose.

"But why are you nervous to see me again?" the Doctor said.

Martha broke away from her thoughts. "Because there are a few things that he and I have to talk about and I don't know how to start."

The Doctor nodded. "Shall I give you one pointer?" Martha looked up at him expectantly. "Be honest," the Doctor said. "In all of my lives, I value one thing the most and that is honesty…"

Martha nodded and uttered a quiet 'thank you'.

The Doctor gave her hands a final squeeze and moved away to investigate a bleeping sound that came from the console.

"We've arrived," he said.

*****

The Tenth Doctor watched Gwen, Mickey and his previous self leave the Hub. He desperately wanted to go with them, he was the one that was supposed to save Martha, to save the woman he loved.

He walked to his predecessor's Tardis and activated the program that would allow the Doctor to call for his Tardis. It worked almost the same as Emergency Program One, only in reverse. Because EP one, was designed to send a companion home if things got to dangerous. Now it would call the Tardis to her owner's current position. The only problem was that the Doctor had to physically change the program, but he when he did that EP one was completely deactivated, and would be unable to send a companion home. And the companion was always more important.

He left the Tardis and started pacing up and down the Hub. After almost a quarter of hour, Jack snapped at him. "Will you stop that! You're making me nervous."

The Doctor stopped. "What would you do, Jack?"

"About what?"

"About the Emmersons. I don't really know what to do. Should I just it all go, let them be, and just take Martha back into the Tardis and leave? Or should I make them pay? And I'm really tempted to do that."

The Doctor looked at Jack.

"I don't know," the immortal man said. "I honestly don't know."

The Doctor sighed, and muttered, "Never mind."

But the thought wouldn't leave his head. Those two men had murdered an innocent woman and had kidnapped Martha. They had taken her away from him. They had threatened her and her little girl. And that was a bad move…

The Doctor looked at his Tardis…

He made up his mind and walked to his ship. He heard Jack mentioning his name, but he ignored him. He went inside, closed the door and immediately started the dematerialization process. A few minutes later, he landed the Tardis on the lawn of the mansion where Martha was being held.

He felt a sudden blurring of the Time Lines and knew that his predecessor was feeling his arrival. The Doctor took his sonic screwdriver from the inside pocket of his jacket, and concentrated. There was another blurring of the Time Lines; his Ninth self and Martha were gone.

The Doctor pushed the button that turned the sonic screwdriver on and pointed it to one of the huge stadium lights. For two seconds nothing happened, then several sparks came from the large pole. Even more sparks appeared and the lights blew out.

The light toppled over and crushed a wing of the mansion. Then the stadium light exploded.

The Doctor strode over the lawn to front door and went into the mansion. Very casually he wandered through the house, with his hands in his pockets. But all his senses were on high alert.

The Doctor found the living room and plonked himself down into a comfortable chair; and he waited.

He didn't have to wait long. John and Brian Emmerson came bursting into the room, and both men stopped dead in the tracks when they spotted the Doctor sitting in the chair.

The Doctor gave them a manic smile, and a cheery wave. "Hello." But both men saw that this was no cheery man, they could see the anger in his eyes.

And both men realised that they were about to see The Oncoming Storm…

_to be continued_


	15. Chapter 15

**My muse returned and she brought insperation! I wrote this in only two hours! I was a little ambivelent about what the Doctor does to the Emmersons. I wanted them to suffer, but not dead. I think that I came up with something that I hope will please you. Enjoy!**

John Emmerson woke up with a throbbing headache. He lay on something hard.

He tried to lift his arm to rub his forehead, to try and ease the pain, but he couldn't move it. He tried the other arm, he couldn't move that either.

He then tried to sit up, but found that even his shoulder wouldn't budge from whatever he was strapped onto. He tried to move his legs… no motion there either…

Emmerson started to panic and started thrashing. It didn't do him any good… he could only move his head.

Slowly, he made himself calm down, and he looked around; he could only make the ceiling, which was a dull grey and two walls on either side of him, they were the same colour as the ceiling.

Suddenly a face appeared above him; the Doctor.

On the Doctor's face there was a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. In the Doctor's eyes there was only anger.

"Good afternoon," the Doctor said.

Emmerson only glared at him. He remembered being knocked out by the Doctor. It had happened so fast that he and his brother didn't have time to react. One moment the Doctor had been sitting in a chair, smiling at them, the next there had been a blur of motion in the air; he had felt fingers pressing against his temples, and then he had woken up strapped with something that he couldn't see, to a metallic table.

"Don't bother, to try and move. There's a force field surrounding your entire body, save for your head, because then you wouldn't be able to breathe," the Doctor said, while patting his forehead.

"Let me go," Emmerson growled in the back of his throat.

The Doctor looked at him for a moment, seeming to consider it, but shook his head. "No. No, you are staying right here."

"And where is here?" Emmerson asked. He hated the fact that IT had incapacitated him, and now had to rely on IT for answers.

"'Here' is a prison called Volag Noc. Several thousand light years from Earth and about 3 centuries into your future. Here you will stay for the rest of your life," the Doctor said with a smile. Then suddenly the smile vanished, leaving only an expression of utter loathing. "You made a mistake when you kidnapped Martha. I don't like it when you take people I like from my side. Now you may haven't hurt her physically, but that doesn't matter. She had been through too much to be hurt by a small, stupid ape like you."

"What did you just call me?" Emmerson asked a little bewildered.

The Doctor didn't answer his question. "Your brother is here as well, in the cell on your right. In the cell on your left is your buddy Tom. They are both secured in the same way that you are. And you will remain her for the rest of your life. Every two hours you will be released from the force field, so that you can move about for two hours; then you will but back in; and don't bother resisting, the guards are robots and stronger then you. In two years, the Governor will release you completely from the force fields."

Emmerson listened as the Doctor explained how his life was going to play out over the next few years. The Doctor sounded cold and distant, as if he honestly didn't care about what he was doing to him.

"Will you ever let me go home?" Emmerson asked.

The Doctor made for the door. "That won't be up to me."

As the door closed and locked behind the Doctor, Emmerson heard the Doctor mutter, "That's up to Martha."

Again, Emmerson started thrashing inside the force field that pinned him to the table.

He was screaming.

***

The Doctor listened to John Emmerson screams. He couldn't bring himself to care, he was beyond that.

He would tell Martha honestly what he done to the three men, and she would decide if they could ever go home. Anything that concerned Tom or the Emmerson's, Martha would have the last say.

The Doctor made his way to the cell on the left; the cell that contained Tom Milligan. The robot that was outside the cell opened the door for him, and the Doctor entered.

Tom was sitting on the table. He looked like hell. He was unshaven, his hair was long and greasy, and the hatred that he felt for the Doctor was clearly visible.

The Doctor nodded a greeting. Tom didn't respond.

The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out some papers and a pen; and he held it out to Tom.

"Sign these," the Doctor ordered.

Tom accepted the papers and pen, and started reading them. The Doctor put his hands behind his back and waited. He knew that any statement he would make, would be a provocation for Tom.

"How's Martha?" Tom asked.

"Very well," the Doctor responded.

"So… you came all this way to make me sign these divorce papers?" Tom asked smugly.

"I had to drop a few things off," the Doctor said coldly.

Tom nodded. "I would have thought that Martha would like to see me sign these."

"Martha wants nothing to do with you ever again."

Tom gave a short, humourless laugh and signed the papers, and gave them to the Doctor. The Doctor put the papers back in his pocket and held out his hand. "My pen…?"

Tom handed that over as well.

"What did you have to drop off?" Tom asked; he sounded intrigued.

"The Emmerson brothers," the Doctor told him.

Tom's head snapped up, and he looked the Doctor in the eye.

"Yes," the Doctor said. "I know about them. They kidnapped Martha, and that is nothing something that I can just let go."

"So, the plan worked then?" Tom said.

"What plan?" the Doctor said. "The plan that involved Martha getting pregnant with my baby and thus providing the Master with a new body? You mean that plan?"

Tom nodded weakly.

"Well, that plan failed. Because Martha is pregnant, but with your baby, not mine."

Tom could only stare the Doctor in the eye, when the implications hit him. "They risked the live of my baby?" he whispered.

"Oh, now that is your baby it's alright?" the Doctor asked.

Tom never had a chance to respond, because his robot guard had opened the door and had come into the small cell. With a resound sigh Tom lay down on the table. Over his body a blue force field appeared and then vanished.

"I want to see my child," Tom said.

"Not going to happen," the Doctor answered. "Martha doesn't want you to ever see your child."

Tom struggled to look at him, so the Doctor moved into his field of vision.

"I will find a way out of here," Tom said. "I will have revenge."

The Doctor gave a light chuckle. "Not before I have revenge on you…"

Tom looked at him quizzically, not understanding where the Doctor was going with this.

"Martha and I have become really close over the last seven months," the Doctor said wistfully. "There's very little that we're not sharing. I can't wait for the day to hear _your_ child call _me_ Dad."

Tom's eyes went wide, but the Doctor had already left the cell. "You bastard, you can't do this! You can't keep my child away from me!"

The rest of Tom's rant, the Doctor couldn't hear.

The Doctor left the prison and made his way to the Tardis. The girl hadn't been very pleased with him when he had brought the Emmersons on board. She thought that he was going too far. In a way the Doctor had agreed with her, but with the Emmersons on Earth, Martha would never sleep soundly. She would always live in fear for her child, that bad people, who wanted to harm them, would take her away from her. And the Doctor would never allow this to happen. This was the best option.

The Doctor started the dematerialization process and within moment, he was back on his way to Earth, where he would finally see Martha again.

_to be continued_


	16. Chapter 16

The Ninth Doctor's Tardis landed with its usual thump inside the Torchwood Hub. It had only been solid for a few moments when the door opened and the Doctor came out, dressed once again in his own jeans, jumper and leather jacket. He was closely followed by Martha.

Martha spotted 'her' Doctor, standing in the middle of the Hub; all mad hair, sparkling eyes and a huge grin. With a sigh of relief, the Doctor rushed forward and enveloped her in a hug.

"Thank goodness you're okay," he whispered in her ear.

Martha nodded, but didn't reply. She merely clung to him, so happy to see him again.

The Doctor loosened the hold he had on her a little and leaned back so he could look her in the eye, and smiled down on her. "Are you two alright?" he whispered.

Martha nodded again, and tucked her head under his chin. It felt so good just to feel his arms around her again, when he did that she always felt save. She knew that while he protected her, she didn't have to fear anything.

Martha started a little when behind her a throat was cleared. "Can I get a hug, nightingale?"

Martha released the Doctor, and smiled over at Jack, and moved from the Doctor's arms into Jack's. Jack gave her quick kiss on the top of her head and then tucked her head under his chin, keeping his arms around her.

Jack released her again, and gave her a smile.

Another throat was cleared, it was the Ninth Doctor. "Well, Rose and I should be off now."

Martha gave him a sad smile. "Do you have to? I would really like to get to know you better."

The Ninth Doctor returned her smile. "Anything you want to know about me, you can ask him." He pointed to his next incarnation.

Martha walked over to him, and gave him a hug. "Boy, I keep hugging handsome men today," she said with a cheeky smile.

The Ninth Doctor blushed a little and ducked his head in embarrassment. He pulled himself together and smiled at her. "Goodbye Doctor Jones, I shall… miss missing you."

Martha looked at him questioningly. "I have to block my memories of you, until this happens again from the point of view of my Tenth incarnation," he explained.

"I understand," Martha whispered. She turned to the Tenth Doctor. "So you have experienced this whole thing twice?"

"Yep," the Tenth Doctor said, popping the 'p'. "It's happened before that I meet earlier incarnations or later ones. Usually the Tardis locks all of my memories of these events, and they unlock when the Time Lines converge."

Martha turned back to the Ninth Doctor. "I shall miss you too," she said. "I know that you two are the same, but yet so different."

The Ninth Doctor smiled at her a final time, and turned to Rose. "Coming?" he said.

Rose nodded, looking a little flustered.

The Doctor and Rose entered their Tardis and the ship dematerialized.

***

Inside the Ninth Doctor's Tardis the atmosphere was a little tense.

The Doctor turned to Rose. He regretted what he had to do, but Rose couldn't have her memories of her future intact. She had witnessed his future incarnation before the time was right, he couldn't allow that to stay in place.

"Rose," he started. "I'm going to have to block my memories of everything that has happened in the last few hours… and I have to take yours as well."

Rose took a step away from him, with a hint of fear in her eyes. "I won't let you," she said.

"Rose, I don't have a choice. You have knowledge of future events, no one is meant to know."

Slowly, he advanced on her. "I won't hurt you, I could never do that."

Rose continued to back away, shaking her head. "No, please don't," she begged.

The Doctor gave her remorseful smile, and quickly closed the gap between them, placed his fingers on her temples, closed his eyes and focused.

He caught her as she collapsed, and he laid her down on the console chair.

The Doctor started pacing up and down the console room. In his mind, his future taunted him with new friends, old friends, new enemies, old enemies… and Martha.

He turned to the console and placed his hand on it.

_Do it now girl… before I change my mind_ he thought. He sat down next to Rose, and laid her head on his shoulder. When they would wake up, they would be in the same position that they were when Jack's signal had come. Both of them would assume that they had simply fallen asleep.

The Doctor closed his eyes, and he felt the Tardis in his mind. The Torchwood Hub, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Captain Jack Harkness, him rescuing Martha, the Guardians, the Master, all his travels as the Tenth Doctor, his regeneration… and Martha were blocked from his mind. He tried to hold on to Martha's face, tried to focus on the memories, but he couldn't. Martha turned to him and smiled and mouthed 'I shall miss you'.

Then she was gone…

An hour later, Rose had gone to bed to get a few hours sleep.

The Doctor found two mugs in the sink in the kitchen…

***

Martha watched as the Ninth Doctor's Tardis vanished. She turned to the Tenth Doctor, "Hello," she whispered.

"Hello," he whispered back. The Doctor couldn't control himself and pulled her in a hug once again.

"I'm okay," Martha whispered, over and over again.

"What do you say about getting out of here?" the Doctor asked. "We can relax in the Tardis for a few days, I think we both need it."

"Yes, that would be nice," Martha answered. She gazed into his eyes, and what she saw made her heart skip a beat.

She was convinced that she saw love…

***

Three hours later, the Tardis was in the Vortex.

The Doctor and Martha were in the kitchen, both cradling a cup of tea; the atmosphere between them was tense.

The Doctor sighed.

"Is something wrong?" Martha asked. "You've hardly said a word."

The Doctor looked up from his mug. "Yeah… sorry. It's just that…"

"What…?" Martha asked.

The Doctor hesitated. "Please tell me?" Martha implored.

"I found the Master's ring…" he said in a rushed voice.

Martha stopped twirling her mug and looked at him. "You did," she whispered.

The Doctor nodded. "Where is it now?" she asked.

"I put it somewhere safe, deep inside the Tardis. She has reconfigured the corridors, so that no one, including me, can ever get to it. Ever again."

Martha nodded. "Did you see Lisa Emmerson?"

"Yes, I did," he answered.

"She was nice to me," Martha said. "I think that her father and uncle made her do things against her will. I started to get to her, and then they wouldn't allow her to be alone with me. You didn't hurt her, did you?"

The Doctor reached forward, and clasped her hand. "I did not hurt her," he assured her. "After I had knocked out her father and uncle, she came into the room. We had a nice conversation… and then Lisa gave me the ring."

"She did?" Martha asked in amazement.

The Doctor nodded. "She's a very bright girl, and she has a brilliant future ahead of her. Jack has agreed to keep an eye on her."

"That's good," Martha said.

A comfortable silence fell between them. The Doctor sighed. "Martha…?"

"Yeah…?"

"I would like to show you something, will you come with me, please?" the Doctor asked.

"Of course…" Martha said without hesitation.

The Doctor got to his feet, he held out his hand and helped her to her feet. Hand in hand, the Doctor and Martha made their way back to the console room. The Doctor helped her to sit down on the console chair.

The Doctor started circling the console, turning dials and pulling levers.

"Where are we going?" Martha asked.

For a moment the Doctor didn't answer, then he said in a quiet tone of voice, "We're going to the constellation of Kasterborous; galactic coordinates 10-0-11-0-0 by 0-2 from Galactic Zero Centre… it's where Gallifrey used to be…"

Despite herself, Martha let out a small gasp. She slid of the chair and put her arm around his waist, and squeezed gently.

"Why are we going there?" she asked gently.

The Doctor never spoke of Gallifrey, not even after he'd had nightmares about his home. It was the only subject that was never discussed between them.

"Because I wanted to show you where I was from," he answered.

Martha shook her head. "I don't understand."

The Doctor turned so he could face her. There was a look in his eyes, that Martha had seen before. He had given her that same look just before they had left Cardiff. "Martha… when we kissed four weeks ago… you asked me if my feelings had changed…?"

Martha swallowed, there was a lump in her throat. He couldn't possibly mean…

A bleep came from the console, it was soft; as if the Tardis didn't want to intrude.

The Doctor turned to the console and pushed a button. "We're here," he said.

He took her hand and led her towards the doors. The Doctor let her go and opened the doors. Together they watched the black vacuum of space laid out in front of them. Martha reached out and entwined her fingers with the Doctor's. Martha swallowed again, the lump in her throat wouldn't budge. She had no idea what to say to him; what could she possibly say…

The Doctor made it easier for her. "Sometimes I wish that it's still there. My people were pompous, thought that they were better than the other species in the universe… but still my people. Now I can never see them again, I can never go home, because it is gone."

Martha starred into space, different sizes of rocks were floating nearby, swirls of dust was around them.

"I don't know what to say," Martha whispered and turned to look at him. He looked at her as well; in both their eyes tears were shining.

"You don't have to say anything," he said.

"Why did you bring us here?" Martha asked.

"I… can I just say something very bluntly, and just allow you to let it sink in?" he asked in return.

Martha nodded and she saw the Doctor take a deep sigh. He squeezed her fingers. "I brought you here, so I could explain my feelings properly. You see, my people would never allow anyone from our race to… be in a relationship with a member of another species. And I always complied. I was never really comfortable with the idea myself. I always cared for the people I travelled with; some more than others, I'll admit that. But then the war happened, and by my hand it ended… I was alone. And I met Rose… and suddenly I had a reason to go on, I had someone that I could protect from harm, but I lost her… but then… I fell in love… I didn't see it coming, I didn't expect it; but I did. I fell in love with a brilliant woman. A woman who doesn't judge me, doesn't expect anything from me, except maybe make her the occasional cup of tea or save her life. A woman who understands me, and listens to me on the rare occasion that I open up. I fell in love with a woman who means the world to me, and that I hurt so bad when we met, that I'm afraid that she will not believe me."

Martha looked him in the eye, taking in everything that he was telling her, he couldn't possibly mean… her.

"I…" the Doctor continued. "I fell in love with you, Martha."

He let go of her hands and walked back up the ramp towards the consol; where he leaned against it, with his back towards her.

Martha took a few deep breaths and made her way to him. She stopped when she was standing opposite him.

"Doctor… I believe you," Martha whispered. "I can see it in your eyes."

The Doctor gave her a shy smile, a smile that he rarely smiled. "Really?"

"Really. When we first travelled together, yes, you did hurt me; but I understand now that you were hurting because you lost Rose. And when I left my love for you changed, I was no longer in love with you, but felt a deep love that you have for very good friends. But then we started travelling seven months ago… and I fell in love with you again… but I didn't know how to bring it up…"

Martha fell silent and gazed at his tie.

"Don't you just love honesty?" the Doctor asked. At Martha's befuddled look he continued, "Remember what my previous incarnation told you about honesty…?"

Martha nodded.

"I hope that you don't hate me, but when the two of us made contact with the Guardians, our minds were linked. Afterwards, he knew everything about his future, about being me, about my feelings for you. I talked to him briefly, and even though he had only known you for a little while and his memories were combined with mine… he felt the same way…"

"So that's my he offered me the pointer?" Martha asked.

The Doctor nodded.

Martha took the last step forward, and put her hands on his chest. Underneath her hands, she felt his double heartbeat.

"I'm a bit nervous," Martha said.

"Why…?" the Doctor asked.

"Because I don't know how to take it from here? I'm scared…" Martha hesitated.

"What are you scared of…?" the Doctor asked. "I love the way the relationship that we have now, I love that we can tell each other anything. I've told you things that I've never told anybody ever before. I… I… can't offer you the things that human men can offer you, like a house and three weeks of holiday a year, and stability. I can offer you to see things that you've never even thought possible, and I can offer you my hearts and my body… and my love…"

"Your love is all I want, it's all I ever wanted," Martha assured him.

The Doctor leaned in, and gently pressed his lips on hers. Martha gave a soft moan in the back of her throat, and pressed her body against the Doctor's.

The Doctor broke the kiss, and laughed. He had felt something brush against his stomach.

"Your girl agrees to this," he said.

Martha started to laugh. "There's something that I haven't told you. I've decided on her name."

The Doctor pulled her against his body and smiled down on her. "Well…?"

Martha pulled from his embrace, took his hands and placed them on her belly. "Doctor, I would like you to meet Peta Jones."

The Doctor smiled. "Hello Peta. It's nice to meet you."

"Doctor, do you agree to take things slow? You were right about what you said, the relationship that we have already is brilliant and I don't want to spoil it by rushing into things."

"Oh, Martha Jones. You are to wise for your age."

"I know that I'm good," Martha said with a twinkle in her eyes.

"I've got a surprise for you," the Doctor said.

"It's my lucky day," Martha exclaimed. "I was hugged by three handsome men today, I was told by the man that I love that he loves me as well, my unborn daughter is happy with it and you've got another surprise for me. Tell me," Martha demanded, but her tone was nothing compared to the twinkle that was still in her eyes.

The Doctor gave a snort of laughter and dug in his pockets. "During your kidnap, your Mom called me. Your solicitor had called that the divorce papers had come in. I picked them up for you and had Tom sign them."

He held the papers out to her, almost reverently Martha accepted them; as if they were a precious gift.

"I can't believe it, I'm free of him," Martha said. "Do you have a pen?"

The Doctor dug in several pockets and after searching a while produced a pen. Martha accepted it and immediately signed the papers.

She folded them neatly in half and placed them on the console.

"I'm free," Martha whispered to the ceiling of the console room.

The Tardis produced a more pronounced hum, which Martha read as an agreement.

"I'm free," she said for a third time. "I love saying that. Do you mind it if I say it a lot?"

The Doctor shook his head, for the first time in a long time, he saw no fear in her eyes.

"I'm free," Martha shouted at the top of her voice. "I'm free, and I have to go and pee…"

The Doctor watched Martha disappear into the corridor that led deeper into the Tardis. He plucked the divorce papers from the console and put them in the inner pocket of his jacket. He didn't feel sad about the fact that Martha had seemingly forgotten all about their possible new relationship, he felt as much joy as she did about the fact that she was now free.

The Doctor walked over to the doors and closed them, then went back to the console and put them back into the vortex.

He made his way towards the door that led into corridors and passed Martha's room. She was standing in front of the mirror.

She had pulled up her shirt and was caressing her bare pregnant belly. She was swaying on the spot lightly, humming quietly.

The Doctor took a few steps forward, but then stopped.

"You can come in," Martha whispered.

The Doctor walked over to her, as Martha turned to face the mirror. The Doctor stepped up behind her, his taller and wider frame outlined hers.

"May I?" he asked, as he put his hands on her waist.

Martha nodded. The Doctor slid his hands over her belly, and held them there. Martha placed her own hands over his, and leaned backwards until her shoulders rested against his chest.

"Doctor? Will you promise me something?" Martha asked him.

"What do you want me to promise?"

"If something happens to me…"

"Martha, don't say that…"

Martha turned round in his embrace, and looked at him with a pleading look in her eyes. "If something happens to me… will you take care of Peta?"

The Doctor was shocked at her question. "But… what about your family? Wouldn't you want Peta to be with them?"

"I want my daughter to be raised by someone that I trust completely. You can teach her things… that are important in life. And I'm not talking about reading and writing, and math and other stuff you learn in school. You can teach her things that have real value, like always helping others, to be kind to others, and… so much more…"

"Martha, I…" For once, the Doctor didn't know what to say.

"Doctor… please?" Martha asked in a small voice.

The Doctor nodded. If Martha wanted this, then he would do his utmost best to take care of Peta.

Martha put her arms around him and squeezed. Grateful that he had agreed.

"Thank you," she whispered.

The Doctor could only nod.

_to be continued_


	17. Chapter 17 Epilogue

**I'm not entrily happy with this final chapter, some how I couldn't make it work. I hope that you enjoy it all the same.**

Seven weeks later

"Francine…?" the Doctor said.

"Yes. It's time isn't it?" Francine hurried to say.

The Doctor gave a nod that Francine couldn't see over the phone. "Yep, she's gone into labour. We're still in the vortex, but we should be landing just outside the Royal Hope in a few moments."

"We're on our way," Francine said, and hung up.

The Doctor turned to Martha, who was sitting on the Captain's chair, slowly breathing in and out. "How are you?" he asked; fear, concern, nervousness and something that could be identified as excitement lining his voice.

Martha gave him weary nod. "So far… you're not mad at me, are you?"

The Doctor gave her an utterly bemused look. "What are you talking about?"

"That I wanted to go to a normal human hospital, and not give birth here…" Martha muttered.

"Martha…" the Doctor said in a hushed tone. "This is your decision. If you want to give birth to Peta in a normal hospital, then that is your decision."

The Doctor had never assumed out right that Martha would give birth in the Tardis, so when she had told him she wanted to have this baby on Earth, he was fine with that. The best side was that he wouldn't have to deliver the baby –which he could do, he had the knowledge- all he had to do, was hold her hand and be there; which is what Martha wanted in the first place.

A bleep came from the console, indicating that they had landed. The Doctor checked the scanner and the Tardis had landed them right across the street from the Royal Hope hospital.

The Doctor helped Martha to her feet and escorted her down the ramp, out of the Tardis, across the street and into the hospital.

An hour later Martha was settled in a bed, strapped to a monitor, eating a pork pie.

Another hour later, as the Doctor looked on helplessly, Martha was wheeled from her room to an operating room. Peta was in trouble and the doctor was forced to do an emergency c-section.

Only half an hour later, a nurse walked up to the Doctor, and handed him a little bundle of blankets. From under the blankets a baby blinked at him owlishly. She had a button nose, and on the top of her head was a tuft of jet black hair.

"Hello Peta," the Doctor whispered to her. "I'm the Doctor, and I'm a… friend of your mummy. And I'm your friend as well."

He walked to a window that faced the street. Cars whizzed past, oblivious to the new life that the Doctor was holding. It was still light, but in the distance the sun was setting.

"This city is called London," the Doctor said, as he turned Peta towards the window. "And I'm going to show you every inch of it. When I've done that, I'm going to show you every star in the night sky. And then I'm going to show you every star that you can't see from Earth. And then, we're gonna travel in time as well. Any famous person you want to meet, any place your learned about in History class… I can make that happen. You can choose, the choice is always yours."

Francine watched him from across the room with a smile on her face. She unfolded her arms and walked to him and stood next to him by the window.

"She's beautiful… isn't she?" Francine whispered.

The Doctor nodded, not tearing his eyes from Peta. He looked up eventually and looked into Francine's eyes. Not needing to speak out load, the Doctor laid her granddaughter in Francine's arms.

"What's going to happen now?" Francine asked. A small part of her was dreading the answer.

"Don't you want Martha to tell you?" the Doctor asked her. Francine shook her head. "We've already talked to Jack. Martha and I are going to Cardiff, we'll both by helping Jack out at Torchwood, raise Peta and… take it from there…" The Doctor gave a slight head wobble.

"And you're happy with that?" Francine asked bluntly.

"What do you mean?"

"You… on Earth… with a woman… and a baby… and a normal job…" Francine gave a snort, "… doesn't really sound like you…"

The Doctor gave another head wobble. "A few years ago… I would have agreed with you. I would have run for the hills, but now… for Martha… I'll do just that."

Francine could tell just by the tone of his voice that he was going to do just that.

"Mr. Smith…?" a nurse said. She was standing in the door frame. "Your wife is now resting comfortably in her room, you can go and see her." The woman turned around and disappeared.

Francine glared at the Doctor. "Wife…?" she growled.

The Doctor gulped. "I only said we were married just so I could stay with her," he said hurriedly, as a gulped for a second time. He reached forward and took Peta from Francine. "We're just going to see Martha…"

And he left the room.

***

Martha was lying comfortably in her room when the Doctor came in, with her daughter in his arms. He gave her a warm smile, and sat down on her bed.

"How are you feeling?" he whispered.

"Tired," Martha whispered, and held out her arms.

Gently, the Doctor laid Peta in her arms. Martha felt her throat tighten as she looked at her daughter.

"Look at her," she said. She gazed at the Doctor in wonder. "Look at her."

"I am," the Doctor assured her with a smile.

"I can't believe it…" Martha looked at her daughter again. "She's a miracle."

"She is…" the Doctor whispered.

The two of them just watched Peta sleeping for a while, as she lay in Martha's arms.

"I was forced to tell your mother that we're going to Cardiff," the Doctor said.

Martha looked at him.

"She made me," the Doctor said, sounding like a five year old. "She's scary…"

Martha smiled, she just knew that he was exaggerating. "You're such a baby sometimes," she laughed. "It's okay, she was going to find out eventually."

The Doctor still didn't looked assured.

Martha settled herself a little bit better into her pillows and closed her eyes. Within moments she was asleep, still holding her daughter.

Gently, the Doctor removed Peta from her arms and laid her down in the small cot that was beside Martha's bed. As he made his way to the door, he turned around and looked at his two sleeping ladies.

He couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed. So much had happened and so much was still going to happen.

He had no idea what the future held, but he would face it bravely, with Martha and Peta.

Next stop for the three of them: Cardiff, England, Earth.

THE END

**That's it. The end of this story. I promise that I will pick it up, but a few other plot bunnies bit me and pushed their way to the forground. So I need to write those first and then I'm going to continue with this.**

**Don't expect anything new from me for the remainder of the year. I work in a toy store and the next few weeks are the most hectic of the year. It doesn't help that I'm the manager and have to work like every single day.**

**I hope that you enjoyed the story, that you continue to enjoy my stories.**

**I wish you a great Christmas (bit early, I know), a Happy New Year, and a great time watching The End of Time, Parts 1 and 2.**

**Goodbye David Tennant, I loved watching you. Hello Matt Smith, can't wait to meet your Eleventh Doctor.**

**See you in a while.**


End file.
